New Box Ship Enters CMA CGM Fleet

The 9,365 TEU vessel CMA CGM Rhone is the seventh in a series of 28 ships from 9,400 TEUs to 10,900 TEUs that will be delivered from now to the third quarter of 2016. The CMA CGM Danube, CMA CGM Elbe, CMA CGM Litani and CMA CGM Tigris are the firsts of this series of 28 vessels named after famous rivers that started being delivered on June 30, 2014. More recently, on February 13 and 14, the CMA CGM Loire and CMA CGM Urual started their first rotation on the CMA CGM Group’s BEX and MEX lines. 

The chartered vessel, sailing under the Malta flag, is the fourth vessel of this class built at the Chinese construction site DSIC (Dalian, PRC) and delivered to the group. 

According to the shipowner, the CMA CGM Rhone is equipped with environmental technologies to reduce its C02 emissions, as well as the group’s carbon footprint. More particularly, it is equipped with new bulbous bow shapes improving the hydrodynamics of the vessel at a speed of 16 to 18 knots, as well as an electronically controlled long stroke engine with an exhaust gas bypass system offering the best in fuel consumption, a twisted leading edge rudder with bulb and a ballast water treatment system.

CMA CGM Rhone is 300 meters long and 48 meters wide, with a 1,458 40’ reefer plugs capacity. CMA CGM said the vessel was designed to offer a maximal loading capacity while meeting the technical constraints of the Strait of the Bosphorus. 

Operated on one of the emblematic lines of the Group, the Bosphorus Express (BEX), the CMA CGM Rhone will offer direct service between Asia, Turkey and the Black Sea, calling Dalian, Tianjin, Kwangyang, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Chiwan, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Izmit, Istambul Ambarli, Constanza, Odessa, Ilyichevsk, Port Said, Port Kelang, Singapore, and once again Dalian, accordingly.