Representatives from a number of different fields have met at the Port of Hamburg in Germany to mark the arrival of the CMA CGM vessel Christophe Colomb, and take the opportunity to discuss the deepening of the fairway of the Lower and Outer Elbe river.
Political figures, association members and port management representatives were on hand to welcome the vessel, which is to date the largest container ship handled at the port, with Port of Hamburg Marketing officials outlining the special challenges in handling large ships on the river.
The main message to port customers and partners was that there is still a need to deepen the river, connecting the Port of Hamburg with the North Sea, if Hamburg is to continue handling large ships with draughts of up to 15.50m.
'The arrival of the CMA CGM Christophe Colomb – the largest container ship to have called at the Port of Hamburg to date – is not only an impressive event, but it is also a mark of the attractiveness of this port location for ocean shipping,' said Hamburg’s State Minister of Economic and Labour Affairs Axel Gedaschko. 'But we also note – The container ships are getting bigger. At the moment, the CMA CGM Christophe Colomb can only call at the Port of Hamburg during a certain tide window.'
Reinhard Peschel, managing director of CMA CGM Germany, said that he would be devoting his efforts to the deepening of the fairway.
'The deepening of the fairway is inevitable, both for us as shipping company and the Port of Hamburg itself,' he noted. 'CMA CGM has deliberately decided to come to Hamburg with ships such as the CMA CGM Christophe Colomb, because here we can find a very good hinterland traffic connection to Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia, and can also excellently pool our transhipment cargoes with the Scandinavian and Baltic area with feeder services.
'We are also very satisfied with the productivity of the Hamburg container terminals and the trusting collaboration,' he added. 'It is important to us that our ships can put up in the Port of Hamburg with as much flexibility as possible. We also continue to emphasise this to the local authorities and we are convinced that one will make the right decisions to expedite the deepening of the Elbe fairway as quickly as possible.'
CMA CGM deploys the 13,800 TEU Christophe Colomb on the French Asia Line (FAL1), and will then move it onto the new Far East Service (FAL5), which is being jointly operated with Maersk Line.
