Khorfakkan Container Terminal receives largest vessel so far
Gulftainer, the privately owned independent terminal management and logistics company, welcomed its largest ever vessel at Khorfakkan Container Terminal (KCT). The CMA CGM Kerguelen, named after 18th century French navigator, Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trmarec, made its maiden call at the terminal on the CMA flagship service FAL1.
The CMA CGM Kerguelen is the newest and largest vessel in the CMA CGMs fleet with an overall length (LOA) of 398 metres, a width of 54 metres and a total capacity of 17,722 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit).
Daniel Wright, Gulftainers Terminal Manager at KCT said: Receiving the CMA CGM Kerguelen represents another milestone for Gulftainer and Khorfakkan Container Terminal, as it is the biggest vessel we have worked at the facility. This new milestone adds to the benchmarks already attained this year at the Terminal where we newly set a new record for the maximum number of containers discharged and loaded on a single vessel call when the CMA CGM Jules Verne worked a total of 19,561 TEUs in a record time.
The CMA CGM Kerguelen is longer than four football pitches, or five-and-a-half A380 Airbus aircraft and its length also surpasses the Empire State Buildings height, which stands at 381 metres. On her maiden call to KCT, the vessel discharged and loaded over 7,700 containers and departed the Terminal ahead of schedule.
Due to its unique location, KCT has been one of the most significant transhipment hubs for the Arabian Gulf, the Indian Sub-continent, the Gulf of Oman and the East African markets. KCT also recently received the Shipping Port of the Year honour at the 2015 Supply Chain & Transport Awards (SCATA).
Gulftainers current portfolio covers UAE operations in Khorfakkan Port and Port Khalid in Sharjah as well as activities at Umm Qasr in Iraq, Recife in Brazil, Jeddah and Jubail in Saudi Arabia and Tripoli Port in Lebanon, which will commence operations in September 2015. The Company also expanded to the USA in 2014 by signing a long-term agreement to operate the container and multi-cargo terminal at Port Canaveral in Florida.
