The CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE has joined CMA CGM Group's fleet thus becoming the largest LNG-powered container ship in the world, the company said in its release.
A global leader in shipping and logistics, CMA CGM has made the symbolic choice of naming its new flagship after its founder, Jacques Saadé, a visionary and entrepreneur.
The joining of the fleet of the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé was marked by a first-of-its-kind digital naming ceremony that saw the shipyard's representatives in Shanghai and CMA CGM Group's management in Marseille share an emotional landmark moment in their common history.
In November of 2017, Rodolphe Saadé, CMA CGM Group's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, decided to equip this series of container ships with LNG-powered engines - a first in the history of shipping for Ultra Large Container Vessels.
These nine vessels are packed with innovations, the result of a long cooperation between CMA CGM's research and development experts and industrial partners. In addition to LNG motorization, the vessels offer advanced technologies:
-The cockpit boasts the latest embedded digital technologies to assist the commander and crew, in particular for port maneuvers;
-They feature a redesigned straight bow with an integrated bulb, a redesigned rudder, and a redesigned propeller all of which substantially improve the vessels hydrodynamics, thereby reducing energy consumption.
These 9 vessels bear a specific "LNG Powered" label that will be recognizable on all seas across the globe. A number of specialized companies played their parts in this landmark construction project, including: BIO-UV Group, a French specialist in ultraviolet-based water disinfection systems who provided the BIO-SEA system, a ballast water treatment technology, CSSC, Shanghai's shipyards who developed a globally recognized know-how and expertise in container ship construction, Cryostar, a French expert in high technology cryogenic equipment who provided the LNG pumps, Bureau Veritas, a French classification company in charge of guaranteeing the certification of the CMA CGM JAQUES SAADE and its sister ships, BLM, a French company who provided winches and windlass, GTT, a French technology and engineering company expert in membrane containment systems, selected for the design of LNG tanks and related technical services, Schneider Electric, a French industrial group who designed the vessel's electrical switchboards, Sperry Marine, company based in the United Kingdom and responsible for radio navigation and platform equipment, Total and Rotterdam port who provided LNG refueling services, Wartsila, a Finnish gas provider who handled system and auxiliary systems, WingGD, the CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE's primary engine designer.
Eight 23 000 TEU sister ships (twenty-foot equivalent unit) will be registered at the French International Register (FIR). They will bear the names of landmark Parisian monuments and other renowned venues and institutions from throughout the French capital (Champs Elysées, Palais Royal, Louvre, Rivoli, Montmartre, Concorde, Trocadéro, and Sorbonne). CMA CGM has chosen Total as part of a major industrial partnership to supply them with gas. Thereby making CMA CGM the initiator in structuring a genuine LNG field of excellence in maritime transport.
The CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE will start its maiden voyage as of September 23rd on the French Asia Line (FAL), CMA CGM Group's most emblematic line between Asia and Northern Europe. Its rotation will lead it to the ports of Pusan in South Korea; Tianjin, Ningbo, Shanghai and Yantian, China; Singapore; Southampton, Dunkirk, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Algeciras in Europe; and Port Kelang in Malaysia. This line provides a weekly service comprising 13 calls over the course of 84 days.
ABOUT CMA CGM
Led by Rodolphe Saadé, the CMA CGM Group is a world leader in shipping and logistics. Its 500 vessels serve more than 420 ports across five continents around the world and carried nearly 22 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2019. With CEVA Logistics, a world leader in logistics services, CMA CGM handles more than 500,000 tons of airfreight and 1.9 million tons of inland freight every year. Present on every continent and in 160 countries through its network of 755 offices and 750 warehouses, the Group employs more than 110,000 people worldwide, of which 2,400 in Marseille where its head office is located.