CMA CGM vessel to set record at North American east coast ports

North American east coast ports will see records broken in container shipping this week.

The 2012-built, 16,020 teu CMA CGM Marco Polo (IMO: 9454436) is scheduled to call at Halifax on May 17, New York-New Jersey on May 20, Norfolk on May 23, Savannah on May 26 and Charleston on May 28 — record-breaking visits for the largest ship call in all five ports.

The vessel is operating on the French carrier’s Columbus JAX service, travelling from South Asia to the North American east coast, and reflects an increase in capacity.

It has a teu capacity around 6% greater than the 2020-built, 15,128 teu CMA CGM Brazil (IMO: 9860245) which last September set the North America east coast record when it arrived in NY-NJ.

Marseille-based CMA CGM said the increase underlines the firm’s commitment to creating “agile and flexible” solutions to meet the needs of US customers, who are seeing “unprecedented boosts” in e-commerce sales and “increased demand” for goods.

As the country begins to reopen, 47% of Americans look to live and spend as they did before the pandemic, with 24% saying they are eager to indulge even more to make up for lost time, according to a survey by financial services company Charles Schwab.

“Despite the continuing pandemic, most consumers are in good financial health and are not hesitating to spend,” said Jonathan Gold, vice-president for supply chain and customs policy at the US National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade association. “More spending translates into more merchandise arriving at our ports.

“The cargo surge that began last autumn doesn’t show any sign of stopping.”

Imports at the primary east coast ports followed by the federation’s Global Port Tracker surged by 22.8% in March, and is an all-time high, equating to a 41.2% jump compared with the same month in 2020.

It projects the import volume in the first half of 2021 to surge by 29.1% compared with the equivalent period of 2020, while the forecast import volume will slow in the second half of 2021 to a 3.6% rise over the same period in 2020.  

Overall, the NRF projects the forecast import volume for 2021 rising by 15% compared with 2020.

Recent throughput figures from Halifax, NY-NJ, Norfolk, Savannah and Charleston all follow that upward trend, with each of the five ports announcing record high numbers for the months of March or April. 

While the arrival of CMA CGM Marco Polo is prompted by increased demand, the ports themselves have long prepared for calls by the larger ships, according to Ed Aldridge, president of CMA CGM America and its US subsidiary APL North America.

“It is important to mention that this milestone would not be possible without the efforts of our port partners on the east coast,” he said. “Their intelligent, timely infrastructure improvements to support larger ships make it possible for us to proactively respond to the needs of our customers.”

The raising of the Bayonne Bridge in New York-New Jersey may be the most obvious example of such timely infrastructure improvements, but each port along the route has added cranes, terminals, deeper waterways or rail access.

Although CMA CGM Marco Polo may be the largest containership to reach North America’s east coast, the west coast routinely sees vessels of up to 23,000 teu, as shown by the arrival of the 2019-built, 23,656 teu MSC Isabella (IMO: 9839272) at the Port of Los Angeles in 2020.