Less than five months after it began making runs between Asia and the US, the largest cargo ship ever to make port in North America has been redirected to the Asia-to-Europe port.
One reason France’s CMA CGM SA cargo shipping company’s shifting the mammoth CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin was due to US ports being unable to easily accommodate such mega-sized cargo container carriers, according to some industry observers.
Too Much Cargo Capacity
Another reason for redirecting the shift was a slump in the shipping industry that has caused the shipping line’s earnings to drop in recent months.
When the Behmajin Franklin first docked at the Port of Los Angeles in December, CMA CGM’s founder and chief executive Jacques Saade announced that six similar mega-sized vessels would be added to the company’s Asia-to-West Coast routes. Those plans apparently have been scrapped.
Size of the Empire State Building
The Benjamin Franklin is the size of the Empire State Building set on its side. It has a capacity of nearly 18,000 cargo containers, about a third larger than any other container ship currently unloading at US ports.
But that kind of capacity apparently isn’t needed on the trans-Pacific route, where a cargo container glut has caused freight rates to drop to near-record lows.
Unlike European ports, terminal equipment and land-side infrastructure on West Coast ports aren’t equipped to handle the world’s largest container vessels. The few times the Benjamin Franklin did make port in the US, it wasn’t loaded to capacity.
Explosion in Cargo Ship Size
Outside of the US, the cargo container ship industry is undergoing something of an arms race as shipbuilding companies set out to prove whose can build the biggest ship. The advent of these mega ships has meant that vessels can now carry nearly twice as many cargo containers as the largest ships build just five years ago.
Part of this increase has to do with the increased popularity of global shipping. Overseas manufacturers are discovering that they can cut costs through economies of scale by shipping their products to foreign markets on these super-sized cargo container ships.
Even in the US, the industry is preparing for the future. Recent widening and expansion projects at both the Panama and Suez canals now mean that these nearly 100-year-old man-made shipping routes can now accommodate these types of larger ships. Whereas before super-sized ships were limited largely to West Coast ports in the US, now they can make port at facilities up and down the Eastern Seaboard.