French shipping group CMA CGM has welcomed the third ultra-large LNG-powered containership as the firm plans to have in total 26 LNG-fueled vessels in its fleet by 2022.
China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s Hudong-Zhonghua held a naming and delivery ceremony for the CMA CGM Palais Royal at its Shanghai Jiangnan-Changxing yard on Friday.
This is the second 23,000 TEU LNG-powered giant for Hudong that also built the flagship Jacques Saade.
To remind, CSSC’s Jiangnan Shipyard delivered CMA CGM Champs Elysees on October 27. This containership is the second vessel in a batch of nine LNG-powered ships.
Hudong is building five vessels while Jiangnan Shipyard is constructing four ships from this batch.
All of the ships will be 400 meters long and 61 meters wide, making them the world’s largest vessels powered by LNG.
Furthermore, the ships feature WinGD’s dual-fuel engines and GTT’s 18,600-cbm fuel tank, both largest ever built. This LNG tank will allow these giants to make a round-trip on the Asia-Europe route with a single fill.
CMA CGM previously said it expects to take delivery of all of the 23,000 TEU vessels by the first half of 2021.
Once delivered, they will work on the Europe-Asia route.
As previously said, the shipping group aims to have in total 26 LNG-powered vessels in its fleet by 2022 as it looks to comply with the new IMO standards and slash emissions.
These include chartered Eastern Pacific Shipping’s 15,000 TEU containerships and smaller vessels of 1,400 TEU.