Maiden Call News

Pasha Hawai‘i’s second liquefied natural gas-powered containership made its inaugural arrival at Honolulu Harbor’s Pier 51, completing the construction and delivery of the company’s ‘Ohana Class vessels.The vessel, Janet Marie, will serve the Hawai‘i/Mainland trade lane, joining the company’s first ‘Ohana Class ship, George III, which began service in August 2022. The new $225-plus million ship—built at Keppel AmFELS in Brownsville, Texas—began its maiden voyage from the Port of Long Beach…

Port of Aberdeen said Tuesday it had welcomed the first cruise ship into the "transformational" £400 million Aberdeen South Harbour expansion. The 203-meter-long AIDAaura, with a capacity for more than 1,200 guests, is the longest vessel to visit the Port of Aberdeen to date. The vessel arrived from Hamburg, Germany, for a full day visit as part of a Scottish cruise. The AIDAaura berthed on Castlegate Quay, and the guests were greeted by a 50-strong pipe band and Highland dancers from Robert Gordon’s College and ‘Welcome to Aberdeenshire’ volunteers.

Shofu Maru, the world’s first coal carrier equipped with the Wind Challenger - a hard sail wind power propulsion system - this week made the maiden port of call in Newcastle, Australia. Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) held a ceremony on October 24 to mark the occasion. "The Australian government has set a decarbonization policy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and local port officials in Newcastle have high expectations and interest in the Shofu Maru, which contributes to decarbonization while transporting energy resources that support people's lives," MOL said.

Hawaii-based Pasha Hawaii welcomed the newest member to its containership fleet with the arrival of George III at the Port of Long Beach in California, where she will begin her maiden voyage to Honolulu, Hawaii. This is the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered vessel to fuel on the West Coast and the first to serve Hawaii. The 774-foot containership was built in Brownsville, Texas by Keppel AmFELS, marking the first of two new ‘Ohana Class containerships to join Pasha Hawaii’s fleet…

The world's largest containership HMM Algeciras made its first European port call this week, entering Rotterdam’s Amaliahaven Wednesday on its maiden voyage to transfer containers at the Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) terminal.The most recent vessel to hold the world’s largest containership crown, HMM Algeciras at maximum capacity carries slightly more 20-foot containers than its predecessor MSC Gülsün: 23,964 TEU versus 23,756 TEU. During its maiden voyage, HMM Algeciras is carrying a total of 19…

Unifeeder containership SCA Tunadal on Wednesday claimed the maiden call at Sweden’s newest freight port, Stockholm Norvik Port, following the completion of a long port construction project.The container terminal is now open, both for vessel calls and for shore-based business operations at the port. The 32 hectare container terminal is run by Hutchison Ports, one of the world’s largest container terminal operators, with 52 ports in 27 countries.Nine goods in 10 arrive in Sweden by sea, and the Stockholm region accounts for half of Sweden’s entire consumption.

Port of Hamburg welcomed the ‘AAL Kembla’ on her first call in Germany’s largest universal port. She berthed at C. Steinweg’s multi-purpose Süd-West-Terminal.AAL Shipping is deploying the heavy-lift/project cargo ship on its new monthly liner service connecting ports in Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia. The service is overseen by AAL’s Hamburg office, opened in 2012, which also offers tailormade tramp chartering shipping to all regions in the world. Built in 2011, the ‘AAL Kembla’ is one of the carrier’s second generation A-class multi-purpose, heavy-lift vessels. She is 193.81 meters long and 29.1 meters wide, with a draft of 9.2 meters. The vessel has four shipboard cranes and a maximum lift capacity of 700 tons.

APM Terminals Moín made history when it welcomed the MSC Sara Elena, the largest container ship to ever berth in Costa Rica, measuring 300m long and a capacity of 8,000 TEUs.In 337 lifts, exports of key Costa Rican exports, included pineapples and bananas, were loaded onto the Sara Elena destined for Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The vessel was in port for just under nine hours, including the obligatory first call celebrations.This successful call once again validates the opportunity to serve Costa Rica’s economy with larger vessels. APM Terminals Moin has been consistently breaking its own gross moves per hour (GMPH) record, achieving GMPH of 28 in its first half year of operation.In this first phase…

OOCL Hong Kong, the third largest cargo container ship in the world, docked in the port of Hong Kong for the first time on Thursday.The Hong Kong-based container shipping and logistics service company Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) said in a press note that the vessel was warmly welcomed at Kwai Tsing Container Terminal V by many friends, colleagues, and the community who went to marvel at one of the world’s largest containerships with a carrying capacity of 21,413 TEU.The vessel’s debut to the city of Hong Kong, an entrepôt well known for its long and vibrant history in international trade and commerce, has a very special meaning for OOCL.

MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company vessel MSC Katya R. became the largest ever container ship to berth at APM Terminals Moin last month. Its first call at the terminal was part of a new weekly transatlantic reefer service.Measuring 281m long and 32.2 m wide, it can transport up to 4,200 TEUs. To date the record at APM Terminals Moin stood at 3,800 TEUs.“We feel very proud to continue expanding the horizons and open new opportunities for national trade, undoubtedly this event contributes to raising the level of port competitiveness in our country”, said Kenneth Waugh, Manager Director of APM Terminals Moin.“We will continue working to guarantee the arrival of increasingly larger ships and the incorporation of new commercial routes”…

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), the third-largest cruise line in the world, controlling approximately 8.7% of the total worldwide share of the cruise market by passengers, celebrated its first season of cruises from the Netherlands, Amsterdam with the European debut of Norwegian Pearl.The international cruise liner said that with this maiden call it is growing the brand’s presence to six ships in the region for the first time.On Saturday, 8 June, Norwegian Pearl’s Captain, Paul von Knorring, and the ship’s officers were honored with a plaque and key to the city of Amsterdam from local officials from the Port of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Cruise Port and Passenger Terminal Amsterdam…

The Port of Southampton has celebrated the inaugural call of Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess, one of 11 vessels to be making their maiden visit to the UK city this season.A traditional plaque and key ceremony took place on board the ship to mark her first call to Europe’s leading cruise turn around port. Alastair Welch, Port Director, and Craig Barbour, General Manager, took part in the official exchange with the ship’s Captain.The plaque and key ceremony is a tradition for all vessels on their maiden call to the port. It has its roots in the medieval history of Southampton, when visiting ships bringing business to the city were given the keys to the city walls.

The latest newbuilding of Holland America Line’s fleet (HAL) “Nieuw Statendam” arrived in the Port of Kiel from Stockholm for its maiden call in the last week, on Thursday morning (23rd May).During the on-board reception, the Managing Director of the Port of Kiel , Dr Dirk Claus, welcomed the ship’s Captain to the State Capital City of Schleswig Holstein and presented him with the handmade plaque for the vessel’s maiden call manufactured by the metal artist Patrick Schloßer.Dirk Claus said: “Kiel has been an integral part of Holland America Line’s itineraries for the eleventh year in a row now. We are very proud that Kiel belongs to the ports where the latest newbuilding of the shipping company is showcased.”In addition to the vessel “Nieuw Statendam”…

The newest cruise ship in the Holland America Line fleet, the Nieuw Statendam, made its maiden call to the port of Amsterdam on Sunday, 5 May 2019.The second Pinnacle Class ship moored at the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam (PTA) and was welcomed with a water salute by Port of Amsterdam. Amsterdam will be the ship’s home port during the upcoming summer season.This was the maiden call for the ship that was christened by Oprah Winfrey in Ft. Lauderdale last February. A cruise ship’s maiden call to a port is traditionally accompanied by a plaque & key ceremony.Alma Prins-Droog, Commercial Manager Cruise at Port of Amsterdam, presented Captain Sybe de Boer with the port of Amsterdam coat of arms.

The first container-ship in the new Asia service Loop 7 - the Taurus,  14.424 TEU, belonging to the Ocean Alliance - has berthed in the Port of Hamburg.Port of Hamburg said that this service is part of the new Day 3 Product, with which the Alliance consisting of CMA CGM, Cosco, Evergreen and OOCL is entering its third year.With DAY 3, the Ocean Alliance has 330 containerships in 38 services, increasing its transport capacity to 3.8 million TEU. With Loop 7, six out of seven Ocean Alliance Asia-North Europe services call at the Port of Hamburg.In total 21 liner services currently sail between Hamburg and the Far East, of which 14 are container liner services.The new Asia-North Europe service Loop 7 is served by ten Evergreen units between 13…

With the arrival of the MSC Trieste,  Contship’s La Spezia Container Terminal  (LSCT) greeted the maiden voyage of the “revised” Dragon/AE20 service from Asia operated by 2M joint partners, MSC and Maersk Line.Like its predecessor, the service calls La Spezia as its first gateway port call in the West Mediterranean, taking advantage of the connectivity throughout Italy as well as southern Europe.The number of port calls in the rotation has been reduced to improve schedule integrity and overall service efficiency. Built in 2011 and over 365m in length the MSC Trieste has a deadweight of almost 155,000 tons and a nominal capacity of 13…

Associated British Ports (ABP) said that its Port of Lowestoft welcomed the Platform Supply Vessel (PSV) the Skandi Captain this week on its maiden call to the port.The visit is the latest in ABP’s partnership with Peterson UK Limited, the major logistics and service provider to the offshore energy industry.The Skandi Captain is the 50th additional call to Lowestoft since the Peterson agreement which was signed in January 2019, bringing vessel visits into the inner harbour on an almost daily basis and the number of additional calls is expected to grow even further.ABP’s ongoing investment in its infrastructure, coupled with the Port of Lowestoft’s key location…

Maastricht Maersk, the latest next-generation Triple-E vessel known for improved energy efficiency and environmental performance, has arrived for the first time to Rotterdam on her westbound voyage from Asia.Welcoming  the maiden voyage of the most modern vessel in the fleet to Rotterdam, Bo Lindberg Andersen, Benelux Countries Manager at Maersk said: "The Dutch name of the new vessel is a symbol of our long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship with The Netherlands and local customers. What is even more important is our continuous commitment to serve the Dutch market and provide services that support local trade ambitions and trigger growth.”Dutch customers continues…

CMA CGM Marco Polo, the largest container ship in the world, docked at the major international seaport Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT) in the southern Vietnamese province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, commencing a new weekly service to transfer cargo directly from Vietnam to Northern Europe.Important guests, including senior government officials will attended the vessel maiden call’s celebrations jointly organised by CMIT and CMA CGM at the Cai Mep terminal in Ba Ria Vung Tau Province.CMIT is a deep-sea container terminal and market leader for global ocean carriers serving the South Vietnamese economy. Since 2018, CMIT operates with a license to handle container vessels up to 194…

The super luxury passenger vessel MV Mein Schif 3 of TUI Cruises with 2,430 passengers and 995 crew on board made her maiden call at the Port of Colombo on 26th November 2018. The vessel was welcomed at the East Container Terminal (ECT) of Sri Lank Ports Authority (SLPA).Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) – Dr.Parakrama Dissanayake said that the Port of Colombo was honored by the presence of Mein Shiff 3 in Colombo. “The Port of Colombo has become an extremely busy port and this year the port also became the fastest growing port in the world in terms of handling containers. The next area we are focusing is the passenger vessels and we have plans to construct a state of the art passenger terminal at the Port of Colombo…

Hutchison Ports Thailand (HPT) recently welcomed M.V. ONE Columba, the largest vessel to ever call Terminal D at Laem Chabang Port. HPT’s new Terminal D played host to Ocean Network Express’ (ONE’s) M.V. ONE Columba.The vessel was met by delegates of Terminal D in the morning of 24 Nov, and the vessel departed Laem Chabang Port one day later. M.V. ONE Columba, with a total length of 364 meters and a total gross tonnage of 145,647 tons, it is the largest container vessel ever to call at Laem Chabang Port in Thailand. The vessel was met with new remote-controlled quay cranes and remote-controlled rubber tyred gantry cranes that HPT used to discharge container boxes from the vessel to the yard with fast…

The world’s biggest container ship, OOCL United Kingdom, made her maiden call at Malaysia's Westports in Port Klang on her way to China.The OOCL United Kingdom, with a carrying capacity of 21,413 TEUs, is one of the carrier’s six ‘G Class’ vessels and they are currently the world’s largest container ship.The vessel berthed at Container Terminal 8, Westports new container wharf that was completed in 2017.Westports has earmarked nine high-performance ship-to-shore cranes to handle OOCL United Kingdom’s containers. The vessel’s call at Westports is part of her sailing schedule under the Ocean Alliance eastbound service NEU1, which starts sailing from Rotterdam and ends at Xiamen.Westports is one of the transhipment hub in this region for Ocean Alliance…

Port of Mombasa of Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) pilots has received Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) container vessel MSC Maxine  master one of largest container vessel to dock at the facility.The port has registered a new performance record of 1450 moves within an eight-hour shift in the container operations, said a press release."The record was set by MSC Maxine in her maiden call at the Port of Mombasa on Wednesday beating the previous record of container carrier Livorno of 1265 moves registered late June this year," it said.MSC Maxine, with a container capacity of 9,411 TEUs, the largest container carrier to dock at the Port, also recorded an average of 181 gross moves per hour to break Liberian registered Livorno's record of 140 gross moves per hour.