On 26 October 2008, the CMA CGM Vela, a brand-new mega-vessel deployed by CMA CGM to its French Asia Line 1 (FAL1) service, berthed at YICT. Measuring 347 metres long and 45 metres wide, the ship can carry 11,000 TEU stacked eight high and 17 wide on deck. Very few ports in the world are able to accommodate vessels of this size.
To cope with the growing number of mega vessels being deployed to international shipping services, higher requirements are being set with regard to the port's scale and service standards, such as having adequate water depth and highly efficient container handling facilities. YICT is continuously improving its facilities and operating rate in order to meet these requirements. YICT also benefits from a favourable geographic location, which, combined with these advantages, makes it a preferred port of call in South China for mega-vessels.
A total of eight ships have been deployed to the FAL1 service, which calls at Yantian every Saturday. It takes 36 days to complete the service route, following a port rotation of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Port Klang, Southampton, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge and Le Havre.
CMA CGM will add more mega-vessels to this service to upgrade its shipping capacity. This will provide more choices in terms of shipment for cargo owners in the Pearl River Delta. Three other weekly Asia-Europe services of CMA CGM also call at YICT, namely, FAL2, FAL3 and FAL4.
To meet manufacturers' growing shipping demands during weekends, CMA CGM has increased the number of its weekend Asia-Europe shipping services to three – two on Saturdays and one on Sundays. The additional services will allow for more flexible cargo shipments and last-minute changes to shipping services.