Insights - May/June 2017 - 34

INTERNATIONAL INTERMODAL NEWS
Size Matters in International
Intermodal - Largest Ship
Ever Makes East Coast Calls
The spring theme in 2017 for international intermodal is all about size in many
forms - of ships, ports and the companies that move cargo.
Much attention on the East Coast was
focused on the largest vessel ever to call
in the region, with the May 8 arrival at the
Port of Virginia of the COSCO Development, whose 13,092 TEUs, or 20-foot
equivalent cargo units, traveled through
the expanded Panama Canal in the first
year after that waterway's capacity to
handle vessels more than doubled.
The Development, about 30 percent
larger than the previous record vessel
at Portsmouth, Virginia, moved on to
Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah,
Georgia. One indicator of the size impact
at the Port of Virginia was the fact that
the 30-hour time frame needed to work
the vessel was more than double a typical
port call.
Farther north on the Atlantic side, the
Port of New York and New Jersey accelerated its bid to join other ports in welcoming larger vessels. Gov. Chris Christie of
New Jersey announced that the raising of
the Bayonne Bridge, which is the nautical
impediment to handling larger ships, will
be done by June 30, six months ahead of
schedule. The $1.6 billion project to create
215 feet of vertical clearance opens the
way for a new generation of international
vessels to reach the largest East Coast
port.

The COSCO Development has become the largest container ship ever to call on the
East Coast.
The developments were accompanied
by equally large superlatives.

'The Big Ships Are Here'
"We've seen nothing like her here,"
said John Reinhart, CEO of the Virginia
Port Authority. "This is what we have been
preparing for: the talk is over, the big ships
are here."
"The 'Raise the Roadway' project is a
true game-changer for the port, one of the
state's and this region's most significant
job creators," Christie said at a May 2
event.
The arrival of the bigger ships also
was a cause for celebration on Canada's
West Coast.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced that the raising of the Bayonne Bridge, which
is the nautical impediment to handling larger ships, will be done by June 30.
34 Intermodal Insights | May/June 2017

In early May, Hapag-Lloyd's Antwerpen Express and its 13,200 TEUs called
at Vancouver to become the largest ship
ever berthed in Canada. Like the COSCO
vessel, the Antwerpen is part of an ocean
carrier alliance that relies on larger ships
to more cost effectively deliver international boxes. COSCO is part of the Ocean
Alliance. THE Alliance includes HapagLloyd.
Maersk Line, the largest ocean carrier,
commented on size of a different sort,
noting an apparent turnaround in the
ocean shipping market both in terms of
cargo volumes and rates for an industry that recently has been plagued with
losses and overcapacity because too
many larger ships were chasing too little
freight.
Another favorable, closely watched
indicator of international intermodal activity was the reports from Los Angeles and
Long Beach, California that cargo volumes
in April had a combined year-over-year
improvement of about 10 percent. That
was larger than the 6 percent growth the
port complex enjoyed in the first three
months of 2017.
Size of a different sort was an issue
for Japan's "K" Line, Mitsui OSK Lines and
NYK Line. The three carriers, which announced plans to merge container operations last year, asked the Federal Maritime
Commission for permission to share
information in advance of the merger.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Insights - May/June 2017