Find out more about the calls made by the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé, our new LNG-powered flagship, on her maiden voyage

It is a great source of pride to see our flagship, the CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE, calling at Le Havre, and welcoming on board the Prime Minister Jean Castex and former Prime Minister and Mayor of Le Havre Edouard Philippe, to discover this exceptional LNG-powered vessel, a pioneering technology that preserves air quality. Through its size, its technological innovations and its method of propulsion, the CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE embodies French maritime excellence.

It was the opportunity to inaugurate 4 new gantry cranes operated by Générale de Manutention Portuaire at the Terminal de France. By investing in these new cranes with DP World, the port of Le Havre is now able to operate the latest generation container ships, such as the CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE. 54 meters tall and with a 72-meter span, they can operate up to 26 rows of containers. A source of pride for our entire industry and for the key players at the Port of Le Havre who work hand in hand with the teams at CMA CGM Group. Congratulations to all the teams mobilized for this exceptional call which caps off a successful rotation!

3rd largest transhipment port in Europe, Algeciras occupies a unique position at the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, just a few dozen kilometers away from the port of Tangier, Morocco. That gives the Spanish port a great geographical advantage to play the role of a transhipment hub in the region.

Our CMA CGM Jacques Saadé and her 8 LNG-Powered sisterships will no doubt be seen a lot in these waters in the coming years, the TTIA Terminal of Algeciras being the second most called terminal in Europe for the CMA CGM Group with no less than 560 calls since the beginning of the year 2020.

From Algeciras, her last call in Europe, the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé will then sail for the Suez Canal before heading to Asia and finally complete her inaugural rotation.

Many onlookers were amazed by the sight of our flagship when they saw it gently glide along the Elbe waters this Sunday morning. The CMA CGM Jacques Saadé has indeed reached Hamburg, 3rd call of her inaugural European rotation. After leaving the Eurogate terminal, the vessel will finally set for Rotterdam where she will proceed to her first LNG-Bunkering with the bunkering vessel Gas Agility.

With her LNG technology aimed at preserving air quality, the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé perfectly completes the eco-friendly solutions CMA CGM offers in this region, including less polluting transport modes such as river barge and train services that greatly contribute to the reduction of road traffic.

First call in British waters for our new LNG-Powered flagship!

Did you know that the year 2020 marks the 30th anniversary of our presence in the UK? How else could we celebrate our history with Southampton other than with the visit of the most innovative ship our industry has seen in many years.

Many of our LNG-Powered vessels have actually already berthed in Southampton. Since December 2018, Containerships, part of the CMA CGM Group, has been deploying 1,400 TEUs LNG-Powered vessels on its intra-Europe trades, offering our customers the possibility to massively reduce the carbon footprint of their activity.

Last week, our CMA CGM TENERE – a 15,000 TEUs LNG-Powered ship- also made her inaugural call in Southampton.

None of these ships feature as many cutting edge technologies as our latest flagship but they all carry the same message: with LNG, a pioneering technology aimed at preserving air quality, the energy transition of our industry is definitely real!

With this first call in Malta, at the heart of the Mediterranean, the CMA CGM Jacque Saadé marks the first step of her inaugural rotation in Europe.

This island harbors the Malta Freeport Terminal (MFTL – owned by CMA CGM), the Group main transshipment hub in the region and its second largest port of call in the world with more than 1,000 calls operated since the beginning of the year.

MFTL is as a matter of fact ideally located along the main trade routes between Europe and Asia via the Suez Canal. Easy to access and sheltered from the North/Western dominant winds, the terminal offers one of the best productivity in the region. From Malta, cargo unloaded from the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé can then join the 130 ports – including 75 in Mediterranean – thanks to smaller vessels called feeders.

On its way to Southampton the CMA CGM will pass a strait laden with History: Gibraltar

The CMA CGM Jacques Saadé is travelling through the Suez Canal for the first time. This is a 193 km-long crossing linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean that will long be remembered. Every year, close to 20,000 vessels—almost 9% of global shipping traffic—use this vital link.

But a whole raft of procedures and a great deal of the crew’s attention is required when travelling through this shipping highway. “Ships can’t simply sail down the canal as if they were at sea”, explains captain Alex Hreniuc, who works at the Fleet Center in Marseille. They need to wait to gain entry to the canal at Suez in the south or at Port Said in the north, before leaving in a convoy.”

The canal is divided up into three sections: a one-way section between Suez and the Bitter Lake, then a two-way section, opened in 2015, between the Bitter Lake and El Qantara, and finally another 50 km one-way section to Port Said.

“To pass through it, ships have to arrive a day early before midnight”, explains the captain. “Otherwise, the ship has to pay a penalty or even wait for the following convoy to leave. An inspector goes on board to make sure everything is in order.”

The ship has to be fitted with a special projector searchlight—the Suez projector—which can be rented from the Canal authorities, with an electrician accompanying the ship throughout its crossing. The captain is also assisted by four different pilots during the journey along the Canal, plus a team of docking pilots and their lifeboat.

“The docking pilots are responsible for the ship’s docking maneuvers”, explains Captain Hreniuc. “As the ships form a convoy, they need to be ready to dock the ship if a problem occurs.”

For a containership of the size of the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé, navigating its way through the canal is a highly delicate operation. “The sections dredged to a depth of 24 m, i.e., those the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé can take given her draft, are only 190 m-wide, whereas she is 400 m-long and has a beam of 61 m”, explains Alex Hreniuc.

The problem is that it may be windy at times, which increases the risk of her being dragged off course as she is loaded up with containers stacked 10 or 11-high on deck. Great care is needed to make sure the ship does not go off course”

For her first crossing, the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé will leave between 4 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. in the morning and exit between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. in the afternoon. “The doubling of the Canal has cut transit times by more than six hours”, notes the captain.

After leaving the Suez Canal, the CMA CGM Jacques Saadé will head for Malta, the Group’s transshipment hub in the Mediterranean. On her way towards new adventures!

Final call in Asia! And a new world record for our new flagship, with 20,723 full containers loaded onboard. The CMA CGM Jacques Saadé already has her place in the history books as a result of her pioneering technology, and she has now beaten the world record, truly reflecting CMA CGM Group’s operational, commercial and environmental excellence.

This record reflects the outstanding design of the Group’s new flagship. “To carry so many containers we have to be able to stack them 10 or 11 high on the deck, giving rise to strict constraints linked to the vessel’s structure and, crucially, how containers are stowed”, explained Marc Olazabal, Operations Manager, E&W Lines, who directs the Group’s operations, including on the FAL 1 line.

“The vessel is so well designed that we were able to pile containers of over 10 tons in a 10-high stack, which is outstanding.” To complete the loading process, all our teams have to work together completely seamlessly. The cargo flow teams need to have positioned the containers at the yard in reverse loading order ahead of the ship’s arrival.

4,000 movements by 9 different cranes during the call in Singapore

“All the cranes had to have the same number of movements in order for the operations to be completed at the same time, and to avoid any reduction in our productivity”, Marc Olazabal continued.

The CMA CGM Jacques Saadé stands out from other Ultra-Large Containerships (ULCS) like the CMA CGM Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (20,600 TEUs) in that it can carry one extra row of containers.

“It may not seem like very much, but some ports are not yet equipped with cranes that can reach the final row. That means the ship planner needs to take this into account in the loading plan. It requires intricate planning down to the finest details.” So, the finest details really do matter on a ship able to carry a load of over 220,000 tons on each trip.”

Singapore, a port apart

Beyond this record, Singapore stands out as a unique port for all of the Group’s vessels sailing from Europe, the Red Sea or Oceania. With 37 million containers handled in 2019, Singapore is the second largest port in the world after Shanghai, and the biggest in terms of transshipping, with nearly 90% of the containers handled destined for other ports. Spread as it is over 817 hectares, with 66 berths on more than 20 km of dockside and 195 cranes capable of handling more than 45 million containers each year, the port of Singapore boasts some dizzying figures.

“Given the size of CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE, we need to be very careful,” explains Commandant Jocelyn Rapp, manager at Fleet Center, CMA CGM’s navigation support centre that provides round-the-clock support to crews on the Group’s vessels.

So, the arrival at the pilot station must be perfectly planned to allow the pilot to board and assist the vessel’s Captain on the final part of the journey to the berth. “There are so many vessels, that there is no anchorage zone available where one can wait for the pilot, for example. You have to be on time.” Naturally, this was something that the CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE achieved!

CMA CGM JACQUES SAADE returns to China!

At its 3rd port of call, our vessel stopped at the port of Ningbo, which handles 26 million TEUs per year.

To mark the occasion, the terminal’s General Manager presented Patrick Peng, Director of Ningbo CMA CGM, with a commemorative plaque. A port agent, suitably protected, then went aboard to present it to the Captain. The voyage can continue...