The CMA CGM’s first LNG-powered containership to call West African ports
The CMA CGM Group announces the upcoming arrival of CMA CGM SCANDOLA at the new Lekki Deep Sea Port in Nigeria on Sunday, the 28th of January. Before reaching Lekki, the vessel will first call the port of Tema, Ghana, on the 23rd of January as CMA CGM’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered containership to call a port in West Africa.
Following the call in Nigeria, CMA CGM SCANDOLA will continue its voyage and sail to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. At 15,000-TEU, the containership also ranks amongst the largest vessels to be calling in West Africa. By deploying this “biomethane and e-methane ready” containership, the CMA CGM Group demonstrates once again its commitment to support West Africa’s supply chains by increasing deployed capacity, as well as the Group’s role as a pioneer to decarbonize Shipping and Logistics’ in the region and worldwide.
CMA CGM SCANDOLA sails on CMA CGM’S WEST AFRICA EXPRESS (WAX) SERVICE connecting West Africa (Tema, Lekki, Abidjan, Pointe-Noire) directly to China, South-East Asia and India. CMA CGM is strengthening the WAX service to support customers with high capacity vessels and by adding calls at the ports of Tema, Ghana, and Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo. WAX also calls the new Lekki Deep Sea Port.
Through it’s subsidiary CMA Terminals, the CMA CGM Group manages and operates the LEKKI FREEPORT TERMINAL, A NEW GENERATION OF MULTI-USER CONTAINER TERMINAL AND A GAME CHANGING INFRASTRUCTURE for Nigeria and West Africa. The new terminal became Nigeria’s first deep sea port equipped with Gantry cranes and one of the largest in West Africa, acting as a gateway to the continent’s largest economy. The terminal’s quay is 1.2-kilometer-long for a capacity of 2.5 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) with an existing phase 1 launched in February 2023 offering a capacity of up to 1.2 million TEUs with 5 Ship-to-Shore Cranes. With a depth of 16 meters, it can operate vessels with a capacity of up to 15,000 TEU. The Lekki terminal serves as a mega transshipment hub, especially to Nigeria's neighboring countries in the Gulf of Guinea such as Togo and Benin.
Dual-fuel gas powered vessels such as the CMA CGM SCANDOLA currently run on LNG, improving air quality by avoiding up to 99% of sulphur emission, 92% of nitrogen oxide emission and 91% of particulate matter.
The Group invested close to USD 15 billion in decarbonizing its fleet. CMA CGM is currently operating 35 dual-fuel LNG-powered containerships, and will have almost 120 vessels capable of being powered by decarbonized fuels by 2028.
