Record number of container ship calls at world ports

A number of container terminals around the world have reported record ship calls or other “firsts” in the recent past, Alphaliner reports.

Among them was the Motukea International Terminal (MIT) operated by ICTSI in Papua New Guinea. MIT, which is located outside the Papuan capital Port Moresby, welcomed its first gearless container ship earlier this month.

They mention that, until now, ships serving Port Moresby, and indeed many other ports in Papua New Guinea, had to be equipped with their own ship-mounted cranes due to a lack of shore-based infrastructure.

Since MIT is now equipped with a container-capable mobile harbor crane (HMC), the port is now accessible for gearless tonnage.

The first gearless ship operated at Port Moresby-Motukea was Meratus Line’s 526 teu MERATUS SAMARINDA. The 2017-built deck ship made a voyage from the Indonesian home ports of Jakarta and Surabaya to Dili, Port Moresby and Lae.

Alphaliner reports that in Latin America, two container terminals operated by APMT have welcomed their largest customers to date. At the end of March, the 9,408 teu MSC ELMA became the largest ship to visit the Moín Container Terminal (MCT) in Costa Rica.

The compact 299.90m long neo-Panamax ship recently joined MSC’s Europe-Baltic-WCSA-Centram service, which is otherwise operated with ships under 5,000 TEU.
On the Pacific side of Latin America, the new 13,248 teu WAN HAI A01 last week became the largest container ship to visit the APMT container terminal at Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala.

Delivered in March by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, the ship gradually entered the Far East from multiple operators: Wan Hai Lines’ WCSA loop (‘ASA’), Evergreen (‘WSA2’) PIL (‘WS2’) and COSCO (‘WSA2 ‘). This service was operated with a mixed fleet of vessels from 6,300 to 11,900 teu until the larger WAN HAI A01 was phased in. Wan Hai’s largest ship has a length of 335.00 m and a beam of 51.00 m.

It ends by reporting that APMT Quetzal is one of the two MPP-container terminals in the port, in addition to the competing Yilport Group terminal, where container ships are handled with a fleet of large mobile port cranes.

Source: Alphaliner