2M: The vessel sharing alliance between Maersk Line and MSC has secured clearance from the United States Federal Maritime Commission to expand its services on U.S. trade lanes connecting to Israel, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The VSA, commonly known as 2M, is expected to include 185 vessels with an estimated capacity of 2.1 million TEU, deployed on 21 services.

CMA CGM: The new CMA CGM Cayenne (above), the first of the 3-vessel Guyanamax ships was delivered on 24th July. The 24,000gt ship heralds the start of a programme to upgrade the company’s 42-day rotation North Brazil, French Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Saint Marteen route. The 2,100 TEU container capacity vessel, including 530 reefer containers, is 190m long and 30m wide. She was built by Korean shipyard Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and sails under the UK flag. Three days later the company took delivery of the CMA CGM Vasco de Gama from China State Shipbuilding Corporation. This 18,000 TEU capacity, 399m long and 54m wide vessel is the largest containership in the CMA CGM group and will also sail under the UK flag. Calling at 11 different countries, the CMA CGM Vasco de Gama is positioned on the French Asia Line, which links Europe and Asia. The CMA CGM Vasco de Gama is the first 18,000 TEU containership ever built by a Chinese shipyard. The CMA CGM Zheng He and CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, 2 other vessels of this series from the CSSC shipyards, will be delivered in September and November 2015. On 4th august the second Guyanamax ship, the CMA CGM Marseille, was delivered with the trio being completed in September by the CMA CGM Saint Laurent. The 20,000 TEU capacity ship under construction at Hanjin for CMA CGM will be fitted with a low-speed Wärtsilä X92 two-stroke engine, delivered by Wärtsilä jv company Winterthur gas & Diesel (WinGD). The engine will be delivered by WingD, a 70%-30% joint venture between China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC) and Wärtsilä respectively. The X92, the largest of Wärtsilä’s X series, will develop between 24,420 kW and 73,560 kW at 70 rpm to 80rpm.

Containerships: The Finnish short-sea shipping operator has started a new Black Sea Express service linking Russia with Turkey. The new service offers a direct link between the Russian port of Azov and Turkey via ports of Istanbul (Mardas) and Gemlik (Rodaport), with further connections to North African countries. The service began on 20th august, with a service frequency of every 10 days.

Cosco Group and China Shipping Group are to form a joint reformatory group, in a bid to push forward the long-expected marriage between the two state-owned conglomerates. A converging of Cosco and CSG’s containership fleets will create the world’s third largest shipping line in capacity terms, second only to MSC and Maersk Line.

Diana Containerships has reduced its fleet by selling one of its Panamax containerships to an unnamed buyer, due for delivery by mid-March 2016. The company will receive $24.25 million for the 2001-built, 3,739 TEU Cap Domingo that is currently on a charter with German company Rudolf A. Oetker KG, a subsidiary of Hamburg Süd, until 8th March 2016. The 40,085gt Cap Domingo, formerly Cap San Marco, was built by South Korea’s Samsung Heavy industries. The company subsequently purchased two 6,500 TEU containerships, the Rotterdam and the Hamburg. The 71,786gt/2008-built Rotterdam was acquired for $37.5 million, and is expected to be delivered to Diana Containerships by mid-September 2015. The 71,786gt/2009 built Hamburg was purchased for $38.5 million and will be delivered by the end of November 2015. The Hamburg is chartered to MSC.

Eimskip’s 10,106gt/2014 built container vessel Lagarfoss experienced a malfunction on 22nd July whilst en route to Reykjavik, some 70 nautical miles south east of the Icelandic coast. The steering gear became problematical so the Coast guard vessel Thor met with the ship to assist her to Reykjavik.

Maersk Line: on 14th July 2015 the 194,849gt/2015 built and 18,000 TEU capacity Marchen Maersk, was officially named in a ceremony at the Port of Felixstowe. One of the biggest container ships in the world, the Triple-E class vessel is operated by Maersk Line on its Asia- Europe service. The Marchen Maersk was the 17th maiden call by one of Maersk’s 399m long Triple-E vessels in 2015. The naming ceremony was performed by Mrs Melanie Collins, wife of Adam Collins, Managing Director of PFE Express Limited, a leading forwarding, logistics and supply chain management company based in Witham. At this time Maersk also welcomed the new WAFMAX (West Africa Max) Maersk Tema to the containership fleet. The 51,872gt/4,700 TEU capacity ship is 255m long. The ship was reportedly named after the country’s premier port city, primarily due to the significant and important role Tema plays in Ghana. A.P. Moeller-Maersk a/S is also in line to purchase Greece’s two biggest ports (Piraeus & Thessaloniki) after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras put them up for sale in his proposal of budget-enhancing measures submitted to creditors.

MSC: The 192,237gt and 19,224 TEU MSC Zoe arrived at Hamburg on the first weekend of august. Along with the MSC Oscar, the ship is the largest containership in service in terms of capacity. The 395m long DSME built MSC Zoe was partially unloaded at Antwerp prior to the passage to the river Elbe to ensure that her draught did not become a problem. The ship’s debut in Hamburg marked another first as MSC selected the port for the ship’s official naming ceremony. The ship is named after the four-year-old grand-daughter of MSC founder Gianluigi Aponte. His daughter Alexa Aponte Vago, MSC group’s chief financial officer, is married to Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of MSC Cruises and one of the hosts at the christening on 2nd August.

NOL: Singapore-based container shipping company Neptune orient Lines has reportedly been put up for sale by investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. NOL’s majority stake owner. The sale process has resurfaced following talks with Hapag-Loyd on a potential merger in 2008 and rumours of a proposed merger between Hong Kong’s orient overseas (international) Ltd. and NOL in March of this year. Temasek holds a 65% stake in the company whereas the remaining 35% is traded on the Singapore Stock Exchange. The estimated worth of the container shipping company is USD 1.7 billion. NOL, which operates through the APL brand, has 92 vessels in its fleet.

Ocean Three partner China Shipping Container Lines is set to refresh its fleet after announcing an order for eight 13,500 TEU vessels from Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Shipbuilding. The order totals $934.4m for the eight vessels, or $116.8m apiece, making them marginally cheaper than the $122m per ship deal concluded by Maersk for up to seventeen 14,000 TEU vessels. Deliveries will be in monthly instalments from April 2018.