Germany: The container ship 'CMA CGM Otello' called at the port of Cai Mep in the south of Vietnam for the first time, from the Port of Hamburg after a transit time of 22 days. The Port of Cai Mep is about 80 kilometres south of Ho Chi Minh City.
The construction of new port cargo handling facilities in Vietnam, near Ho Chi Minh City and Haiphong, is increasingly prompting overseas shipping companies to call at ports in Vietnam directly.
No fewer than three direct connections between ports in northern Europe and Vietnam have been established in the year 2010.
The 'CMA CGM Otello' is one of a fleet of ten containerships with a slot capacity of between 8,500 and 9,500TEU operating CMA CGM's weekly French-Asia Line 3 container service.
This scheduled liner service has been calling at the Port of Hamburg for more than ten years.
The service currently links the ports of Qingdao, Ningbo, Chiwan, Nansha, Yantian, Cai Mep and Port Kelang with European ports. The Europe-bound leg also includes the port of Marsaxlokk; the ports of Beirut and Jeddah are added on the east-bound journey.
The CMA CGM subsidiary ANL and the partner company China Shipping have also chartered slots on the FAL 3 service.
The FAL 3 is the third scheduled liner service for containers linking Hamburg with Vietnam. The first was the Asia-Med-Europe (AME) service operated by the shipping company ZIM, launched in September 2010, and followed closely by the Asia–North Europe Loop (NE-5) run by the CHKY Alliance in October 2010. Additional direct connections are expected to be established in future.
Previously, goods from Vietnam were shipped to Europe via Asian transhipment hubs such as Singapore. Commodities imported from Vietnam via the Port of Ham-burg are mainly food stuff and clothing. Exports to Vietnam shipped via Hamburg, mainly as general cargo, are scrap metal and machinery.
With the introduction of direct scheduled liner services, which cut transit times by about a week, the volume of cargo shipped to and from Vietnam is expected to increase.
