Hamburg-based Containerships, a subsidiary of the French shipping giant CMA CGM, announced it took delivery of its second LNG-powered ship, ‘Containerships Polar’, to operate in Northern Europe.
As the second LNG-powered ship for Containerships and the CMA CGM Group, the Containerships Polar will be phased into the redesigned BALT 2 service in the Port of Rotterdam on 23 June.
In early May, the 1,380-TEU vessel started its voyage from Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard in China to Northern Europe, where it will operate alongside its sister ship ‘Containerships Nord’.
At the end of June, the vessel’s first LNG bunkering will be carried out in Rotterdam where it will fuel an approximate of 200mt of LNG via ship-to-ship bunkering.
With its future sister ships ‘Containerships Arctic’ and ‘Containerships Aurora’, two more LNG-powered vessels will join the fleet until the end of the year.
The new vessel will be deployed in the redesigned weekly BALT 2 service to link Northern Continental Europe with the Baltic states and Russia in an environmentally-friendly manner.
A total of seven major European ports are served, including the Port of Rotterdam which acts as an important transshipment hub, but also as bunkering port for the LNG vessels.
This comes in line with the CMA CGM Group’s plan to achieve environmental sustainability in accordance with stringent regulations. The company plans to operate 20 LNG-powered vessels by 2022.
