Massive Entity Establishes Consistent Presence
Getting Back in the Game: Kiel Canal Regains Prominence for Giant Container Ships - "CMA CGM Mermaid" Sails Near the Limits
Kiel. The Kiel Canal has seen its fair share of bumps, from faulty locks to a scarcity of pilots and tugboats. As a result, the number of ships traveling the route plummeted from over 30,000 to under 27,000 per year. But there's a ray of hope on the horizon.
The French container shipping powerhouse, CMA CGM from Marseille, has recently introduced vessels optimized for the Kiel Canal's dimensions. The "CMA CGM Mermaid" embarked on a test run this week, and it was smooth sailing.
According to Jens-Broder Knudsen, chairman of the Initiative Kiel Canal, "Everything went swimmingly. The ship navigated the canal without a hitch in a fine time." At 205 meters in length and 30 meters in width, the brand-new vessel hovers just below the maximum allowed dimensions for a canal passage. Since the ship, fresh from a trip from Asia to Europe, wasn't fully loaded in Hamburg, it managed to squeeze through.
"However, the draft will be too large upon the return journey," notes Knudsen. "Then it won't fit through the canal." The ship is anticipated to return from Finland with containers, making stops in Tallinn (Estonia) and Danzig (Poland), before reaching Bremerhaven and Hamburg. At this point, the ship will have a draft of around 10 meters, which exceeds the maximum permitted draft of 9.5 meters in the Kiel Canal.
"But the shipping company has agreed to regularly use the Kiel Canal on the voyage from Hamburg to the Baltic Sea," says Knudsen, who is also the managing director of the Kieler agency Sartori & Berger, representing CMA CGM at the Kiel Canal. The ship is now expected to pass through the canal every two weeks, beginning April 29.
"The development underscores that major shipping companies still keep the Kiel Canal on their radar despite previous negative reports," says Knudsen. Lately, lock malfunctions, as well as scarcity of available pilots and tugboats, have kept many shipping companies at bay from utilizing the waterway.
Major Shipping Companies Bet Big on Kiel Canal
However, the time advantage of almost a day compared to the detour via Skagerrak and Kattegat, along with the savings in fuel achieved by utilizing the artificial waterway, has once again made the Kiel Canal a tempting option for major shipping companies. As Knutsen points out, "That's why the Kiel Canal has become alluring once more for major shipping companies."
The new container behemoth, "CMA CGM Mermaid," requires just a single tugboat to enter the canal locks. The massive freighter is capable of negotiating the locks without tugboats. Previously, the Danish shipping company Maersk Line had already deployed a ship optimized for the Kiel Canal.
Sporting a container capacity topping 2,000 standard containers (TEU), they are the biggest container-carrying vessels to ply the Kiel Canal. The 205-meter-long and 29-meter-wide hull of the "CMA CGM Mermaid" has been designed to cram in a max of steel boxes on board. The bridge is located upfront, and the main engine, along with the large tank for liquefied natural gas (LNG), are situated at the rear. The tank can hold 1,053 cubic meters of LNG.
"Laura Maersk" and "CMA CGM Mermaid" were built at the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in South Korea. The French shipping company has ordered ten of these freighters, at a cost of $62 million per ship. Six of these mammoth new container vessels are expected to operate in Northern Europe from 2025. Their main ports will be Hamburg, Bremerhaven, and Rotterdam. Four of the remaining four vessels will service the Mediterranean, as per the shipping company's announcement.
Acquiring these freighters also enables the use of eco-friendly fuels like bio-LNG and green methanol, as shipping companies strive to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Maersk and CMA CGM each operate over 600 ships worldwide. In terms of container capacity, Maersk ranks second on the global fleet ladder with 4.2 million TEU, trailing MSC. CMA CGM follows in third place with 3.66 million TEU.
References:Holsteiner Zeitung, April 24, 2024, page 12, overall enrichment data based on available sources and expert insights.
Business and finance sectors are keenly watching the Kiel Canal's resurgence as a preferred route for giant container ships, with major shipping companies such as CMA CGM and Maersk betting big on technology to optimize their vessels for the canal's dimensions. The use of eco-friendly fuels like bio-LNG and green methanol in these technologically advanced vessels is a testament to the industry's commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality by 2050.
