Now that West Coast shipping ports are clear of the congestion that plagued them during the last two years, the largest container ship ever to arrive at a North American port has docked at the Port of Los Angeles.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin “megaship,” which can carry almost a third more cargo than the largest ships currently at the Port of Los Angeles, arrived on Dec. 26 from its first trip from China and South Korea.
As we previously reported, worldwide shipping companies are adding larger vessels to their fleets this year, showing a container shipping growth rate of 7.7 percent. Another 1.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units of capacity will be added to the global shipping fleet next year.
The addition of this larger ship comes in a wave of increasing vessel size as a response to high volumes of cargo arriving at once. U.S. seaports, such as Long Beach and Los Angeles, have taken steps to accommodate the larger cargo ships, such as deepening channels and expanding terminals.
Jack O’Connell, an international trade economist, told the Los Angeles Times that the arrival of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin is a positive indicator that West Coast shipping ports can efficiently handle increased cargo loads.
The ship is scheduled to depart tomorrow morning, stopping in Oakland, Calif., before going back to China, docking in Shanghai.
