According to a recent statement, the large-scale vessel, APL Esplanade, with a capacity of 13,892 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), recently arrived at Puerto Aguadulce, confirming Buenaventura as a strategic port city for Colombia and its foreign trade.
Coming from Asia, the vessel will now continue its journey to other ports in South America, after calling in Colombia.
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With a length of 369 meters, equivalent to roughly four professional soccer fields and a width of 51 meters, this vessel has the largest physical dimensions to call at any Colombian terminal.
APL Esplanade sails on the CMA CGM group’s Asia Central South America (ACSA1) service, which links East Asia with Central and South America.
The event highlights the importance; capacity as well as competitiveness of Buenaventura Port, located close to Colombia’s major urban areas such as Bogotá, Medellín and Cali.
Miguel Abisambra, Puerto Aguadulce general manager highlighted that
For Puerto Aguadulce, receiving this type of vessel is an honor and a great responsibility. We work continuously under our vision of being a strategic ally of the Colombian economy. At the end of last year, we received what is now, after APL Esplanade, the second largest capacity container vessel that has docked in the country. These calls confirm that Puerto Aguadulce is a terminal with global service standards, technology, infrastructure and security.
Earlier, in March, US welcomed the largest container ship ever at its ports to call on the US, arriving at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The MSC-operated 19,500 TEU ‘MSC Eloane’ arrived in Los Angeles on 13 March, as part of a 2M alliance service.
The previous record was marked with CMA CGM’s 17,900 TEU ‘CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin’, which performed three Transpacific sailings in the first half of 2016. These ships are now operating in the Europe-Far East trade.
In August, Rotterdam welcomed the world’s largest container ship, ‘MSC Gülsün’, on Tuesday, 3 September. Between 2 and 3 p.m., the ship was expected to be calling on the APMT2 terminal at Maasvlakte 2.
The MSC Gülsün arrived in Europe on 21 August, after completing its landmark maiden voyage from the north of China.
With a length of 400 metres and a width of 62 metres, this vessel has a capacity of 23,756 TEUs, making it the largest container ship in the world.
MSC Gülsün is the first vessel of its kind that can transport 24 containers side by side across the breadth of its hull.
