The CMA CGM Marco Polo has become the first container mega-ship with a capacity of more than 16,000 standard containers (TEU) to call at the Port of Hamburg in Germany.
The French shipping company's new flagship vessel, the largest container ship in the world at 16,020 TEU, moored at a mega-ship berth at the HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB).
The vessel sails the FAL1 service on the most important international trade route between the Far East and Northern Europe, which is a crucial shipping region for the Port of Hamburg.
'Thanks to its good hinterland connections to central and Eastern Europe and the excellent trans-shipment link to the Scandinavian and Baltic regions, CMA CGM made a conscious decision that its ships, such as the CMA CGM Marco Polo, should call at Hamburg,' explained Reinhard Peschel, managing director of CMA CGM Deutschland.
'We have to bring our ships as close as possible to our customers, who appreciate the Port of Hamburg as much as we do,' he added. 'The delay in the dredging of the river Elbe makes it more difficult for us to enable dependable handling, because even now we can only sail upriver under restrictions due to very narrow tide windows and the limited draught for ever-larger vessels.'
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