BRAND new containerships ordered or chartered by parent CMA CGM are being introduced to ANL’s Australian services.

The 6014 TEU CMA CGM Zingaro arrived in Melbourne yesterday [2 April] from Kaohsiung on its maiden voyage in the A3N service from North & East Asia, in which it has replaced the 20-year-old 5770 TEU CMA CGM Bellini.

CMA CGM Zingaro is the third of six sisterships ordered by Belgium’s Savery family’s containership division Delphis NV and was delivered by China’s Qingdao Yangshan Shipyard in mid-January. 

The ultra-compact design by MARIC is 42.80 m (17 rows) wide, but only 240.00 m long; it has plugs for up to 1,150 reefer containers, and a speed of 20 knots. Deadweight is 75,826 t. According to Alphaliner the ship type has been developed to be highly flexible in regard to future fuel types and the conventionally-powered vessels can be easily adapted to operate on ammonia or methanol, if required.

ANL/CMA CGM will soon take delivery of a sister, CMA CGM Baikal, which is due in Australia in June as a replacement for A3N’s CMA CGM Chopin. By way of comparison the Composer class carry fewer containers on a longer (277 m) but narrower (40 m) hull and have a deadweight capacity of 73,000 t.

The company has also introduced a newbuilding to the ANZEX service between N&EA and New Zealand.

In late January Japan’s Imabari Shipyard at Mihara delivered the 5,920 TEU CMA CGM Fiordland, the third ‘Imabari 5500 Compact’ type to join CMA CGM. This class has a deadweight of around 70,400 t, a length of 254.90 m, a breadth of 40.00 m (16 rows) and a draft of 14.00 m. The ships can load 3,995 TEU at a homogenous weight of 14 tons per TEU and have 1000 plugs for reefer boxes. Speed is also 20 knots.

More than a dozen of this type have been delivered to or are on order for operation by Maersk, OOCL and Eastern Pacific Shipping.