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Khor Fakkan port gains from rising trade between Asia and Europe
New Opera class French ship Tosca arrives at regional transshipment hub
- By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 February 17, 2006
Khor Fakkan: Rising trade between Asia and Europe is helping the port of Khor Fakkan position itself as a regional transshipment hub able to handle giant container ships.
Yesterday the port received French shipping company CMA CGM's new Opera class ship Tosca.
With a length of 334 metres and width of 42.8 metres, the vessel can carry 8,500 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent containers).
The Tosca can carry 700 refrigerated containers, equivalent to several warehouses.
The ship's 64-day journey began in Malta and the next stop will be Hong Kong followed by Shanghai, the ship's captain Mathieu Laurent told Gulf News aboard the Tosca.
"We are using Khor Fakkan as our main hub port for feeder ships in
the region," CMA regional director Peter Young said.
The company operates four feeder vessels in the Gulf with a capacity of 150 to 600 TEUs.
Additions
Young said the company has introduced the giant Opera class ships, built in South Korea, on its French Asia Line (FAL) service between Europe and Asia to meet growth in container traffic.
The FAL service covers the North European ports of Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge and Le Havre, the Arabian Gulf, and Chinese ports of Hong Kong, Ningbo, Yantian and Shanghai. "There is a big increase in trade between Asia and Europe, and also between the Gulf and these two regions. We have to match market growth.
"FAL is our premium service and we are using our best ships on this route," Young said.
CMA, ranked the number three shipping company globally after Maersk and MSC, has 27 ships on order and of these 10 will be Opera class, being built in South Korea and expected to be delivered in 2006 and 2007.
In July this year an even bigger ship, named Fidelio, with a capacity of 9,500 TEUs will start operations in the Gulf.
Keith Nuttall, commercial manager of Gulftainer Company Ltd, which manages the port of Khor Fakkan, said facilities at the port are being expanded to accommodate giant ships like the Tosca.
"Khor Fakkan is an important port on the east-west trade route. Shipping lines are introducing bigger vessels and we are expanding our handling capacity," he said.
Expansion
Khor Fakkan Container Terminal will soon receive four new super post-Panamax gantry cranes, taking the total number to 14.
In 2005, Khor Fakkan handled 1.9 million TEUs, achieving six per cent growth over 2004 throughput.
The Government of Sharjah is currently in the process of taking a decision on the second phase of expansion.
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