The container ship MSC London called at Fos-sur-Mer

On 8 February, the 16,650 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ship MSC London made its first call at Darse 2 of the Fos-sur-Mer container terminal of the Marseille Fos port, the company said in its press release.
 
For the first time, the vessel touched the container terminal managed by the cargo-handler Seayard as part of the weekly "Dragon Express" service which operates the Europe-Asia-Europe rotation.
 
Delivered in 2014 by the Korean company STX Offshore and Shipbuilding, the ship measures 400 m long by 54 m wide, has a deadweight capacity of 186,000 tonnes and a 16 m draught. She flies the Panamanian flag. She is commanded by Zodiac Maritime and is chartered to the number two worldwide ship-owner, MSC, for an indeterminate period. She is the first ship of this size to call at the West harbour of the Marseille Fos port.
 
In order to best meet customers' demands and facilitate the access to terminals for container ships of this size, the port will soon launch studies in order to continue improving the naval access to Darse 2, which shall include, in particular, plans to deepen the access channel and the Darse. As a first phase, a new dock shall be built between the two existing Fos 2XL docks in order to improve the service offer and optimise the operation of the state-of-the-art ship-to-shore cranes between the two operators.
 
The launch of these projects is in line with the orientation lines set out in the port of Marseille Fos' 2014-2018 strategic plan which includes the continued development of the container activity among others.