Boluda Lines of Spain launched a new weekly service connecting the Spanish mainland with Tenerife and Las Palmas on the Canary Islands from 25th September, with a transit time of 2 days. The 7,550gt/1996 built and 749 TEU capacity Wega is employed on this service, departing Alicante every Friday, and the Canary islands every Monday, complementing the already existing MED service which covers the route between Barcelona, Valencia and the Canary islands.

CMA CGM’s new 175,688gt and 18,000 TEU capacity CMA CGM Bougainville (above), now the largest container ship in the world to fly the French flag, gas christened by Mr. Francois Hollande, President of the French Republic in Le Havre on 6th October. The ceremony was attended by Jacques r. Saade, Founder and CEO of the CMA CGM group among others. The ship is also the first container vessel to ever have in-built connected container technology supplied by Traxens. This unique technology, which transforms containers into smart connected objects and introduces the multimodal transportation system into the Big Data era. The equipped smart containers are able to communicate among themselves and to the ship’s communication infrastructure by using built-in relay antennas, allowing even the most deeply hidden container to be connected. A wide range of data from each container can be gathered and transmitted including location, temperature, humidity level, vibrations, impacts, attempted burglary, customs clearance status and more. The devices provide even greater added value in the refrigerated transport of perishable goods. They can remotely control and adjust the temperature of refrigerated containers and will allow resource optimization for routine inspections. Capital Product Partners (CPP) has taken delivery of the CMA CGM Uruguay, a 9,288 TEU capacity eco-flex, wide beam containership built by Daewoo-Mangalia Heavy industries, Romania, in 2015. The ship is the fourth of five vessels to be acquired, with a purchase price of $81.5m and is chartered to CMA CGM for around five years at a gross daily charter rate of $39,250. The other three acquired vessels, the active, Akadimos, and Amadeus, were delivered in March, June and July, respectively. CPP also plans to purchase an additional newbuilding from Capital Maritime, a sistership to the CMA CGM Uruguay for use by the French line. The sistership to the CMA CGM Vasco Da Gama (delivered 27th July), the 178,228gt CMA CGM Zheng, the second of three Ultra Large Container Ships (ULCS) built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS), was delivered on 12th September. The ship is named after the 15th century commander of the Ming dynasty’s merchant and exploration fleet, and is the second ULCS ever to be built at a Chinese shipyard. The 18,000 TEU capacity ship is 399m long and 54m wide.

Eimskip chartered in a 500 TEU vessel in October ahead of making changes to its service linking the Faroe islands with Scotland. The gray Line, Eimskip’s dedicated line between the Faroe Islands and Scrabster in Scotland, will have new ports of call in Århus (Denmark), Halmstad (Sweden) and Swinoujscie (Poland). The changes increase the capacity of the company’s liner vessel fleet by 6% and are the result of a substantial growth in goods transported to Iceland.

Danaos Corporation has acquired three second hand vessels through Gemini Shipholdings Corporation, a newly-formed joint venture between the company and its largest stockholder. The ships are the 75,201gt/2001 built and 6,422 TEU NYK Lodestar (on a 2 year time charter with NYK), the 68,687gt/2002 built Suez Canal and the 66,292gt/2002 built/5,544 TEU Genoa. The latter two are on a 7-year bareboat charter to Gemini with a purchase obligation at the end of the charter. 

Hamburg Süd christened the 10,600 TEU container ship Cap San Vincent at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering’s yard in Koop, South Korea on 16th September. The 331m long/49.4m beam Cap San Vincent is the most recent vessel of an identical trio with sisterships Cap San Juan and Cap San Lazaro being delivered earlier this year. The new ship was phased into the company’s Asia-South America East Coast Service in late September. 

Hapag-Lloyd has announced long-awaited plans for an initial public offering that is expected to raise around $500m when launched around November time, and will use some of the proceeds to order ultra large containerships. Now the world’s fourth largest container line (due to the merger with the container arm of Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores), the German operator said it intends to list its shares on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the regulated market of the Hamburg Stock Exchange in 2015. Existing major shareholders will retain a majority stake while German travel company TUI, which has wanted to sell its stake for several years, will now be able to do so. The consortium company owned by CSAV, HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft für Vermögens- und Beteiligungs Management and Kühne Maritime, which now holds a 78% majority interest in Hapag-Lloyd, has agreed to hold a stake of at least 51% for 10 years, not sell any shares in the IPO and to pool their voting rights on all decisions relating to the company’s business. TUI, which holds a 14% interest, intends to sell shares in the IPO. Of the total proceeds, $400m will stem from the sale of newly issued shares to institutional and retail investors. Hapag-Lloyd intends to use the expected $500m for further investments in ships and containers to further strengthen its capital structure, long-term growth and profitability. The construction of six Ultra Large Containerships (ULCS) with a capacity for 20,000 TEU is now almost certain. The company has also secured long-term financing for five 10,500 TEU new-built vessels to be deployed primarily on the South American routes, each with a capacity of 10,500 TEU. Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk Line have also agreed to co-operate in increasing the safety of dangerous goods. Hapag-Lloyd has been developing the watchdog program since 2011. Last year alone, Hapag-Lloyd discovered 2,620 cases of incorrectly declared dangerous goods that were prevented from being shipped. Dangerous goods experts at Hapag-Lloyd investigated over 162,000 suspicious cases which were recorded using the newly developed watchdog software. 

Maersk Line’s next generation of 19,600 TEU capacity ships will be equipped with Mitsubishi Heavy industries’ waste heat recovery systems (WHRS). The WHRS on order is MHI-MME’s proprietary system for marine use that generates electric power by maximizing recovery and utilization of exhaust gas waste energy from marine diesel engines. With this order, the cumulative number of WHRS units ordered since the system’s market introduction in 2010 is 87. The WHRS is a system that optimally controls exhaust gas turbines and steam turbines, enhancing fuel efficiency by recovering waste heat across a wide range of engine loads. In this way the system contributes to reductions in environmental impact. MHI-MME’s WHRS equipment was also installed on Maersk Line’s Triple-E series. The new WHRS order will bring the number of installations on Maersk vessels to 69, in four series. Hong Kong-based container ship owner and operator Seaspan Corporation accepted delivery of its eighth 10,000 TEU Saver design container ship from China’s Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding in September. Christened Maersk Guayaquil, the 113,042gt ship commenced a five-year, fixed-rate time charter with Maersk Line. 

Seaspan Corporation has accepted delivery of a 14,000 TEU containership, the YM Warmth. The newbuild, which was constructed at Hyundai Heavy industries Co., Ltd., is Seaspan’s sixth 14,000 TEU Saver design containership and eighth delivery in 2015. The YM Warmth will commence a ten-year, fixed-rate time charter with Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. who may extend the charter for up to an additional two years. The ship is the sixth of a total of eight 14,000 TEU Saver design vessels to be chartered by Seaspan to Yang Ming and this delivery of the 144,651gt YM Warmth expands the Company’s operating fleet to 85 vessels. Seaspan provides many of the world’s major shipping lines and has a managed fleet consists of 118 containerships representing a total capacity of over 935,000 TEU, including 18 newbuilding containerships on order scheduled for delivery to Seaspan and third parties by the end of 2017. 

Rotterdam closed its oldest container terminal ECT City Terminal at the Eemhaven on 1st October with the departure of the last sea-going visitor, the 42,382gt/2006 built CMA CGM Sambhar. The decision to close was taken as the terminal became unable to cope with the increases in scale in container shipping after almost 50 years of service. Nowadays, the largest container vessels are 400 metres long and 60 metres wide, requiring deeper docks and larger cranes. Container traffic will now be handled at the Maasvlakte Delta and Euromax terminals. The ECT Home terminal originally opened in 1967, with the maiden call by the Atlantic Span of shipping line Atlantic Container Line. 

UASC’s 18,000 TEU containership Barzan, that suffered a fire on 15th September whilst en route to Felixstowe, arrived at the DP World London gateway terminal on 20th September. After the fire, which was detected in hold No.2 while the ship was some 60 miles off Cap Finistere, at the north-western tip of Spain, the ship diverted to Rotterdam Maasvlakte for assessment and repairs and was alongside for 4 days thus missing her slot at Felixstowe so called at London gateway instead. This made her the largest containership to sail along the river Thames. 

Unifeeder, the Danish shortsea shipping specialist, acquired the liner activities of Tschudi Logistics, a subsidiary of the Norwegian private shipping and investment company Tschudi group, in October. Unifeeder will be offering the former Tschudi services under the brand name Tschudi Express.