At 115,700 DWT and with a capacity of 9038 TEU, Grete Maersk was the first Maersk Line vessel to call the newly opened Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT) on its route from Asia to North America. With this first direct “Transpacific 6” (TP6) vessel calling CMIT on August 16th 2011, Maersk Line officially became a business partner of its sister company, APM Terminals, one of the three main investors in CMIT. This move tightens the relationship between the carrier and port operator and benefits their import-export customers.
CMIT offers Maersk Line a 14 meter channel depth with 16.5m depth alongside, state-ofthe-art shipside and shoreside handling facilities and over 36 hectares of container yard.
Peter Smidt-Nielsen, General Director, Maersk Line Vietnam said: “We are excited to start calling at CMIT with our Direct Trans Pacific service and look forward to further enhancing the service to our customers. We are very proud to have 100 percent On-Time schedule reliability between Vietnam and the US West Coast in quarter 2 as the only line, and we look forward to continue delivering that important service to our customers.”
As business partners, Maersk Line and CMIT aim to provide their customers a better service to North American destinations, on-time vessel reliability and higher capacity to cover increased demand for imported cargo to Vietnam.
“We are delighted to welcome Grete Maersk to CMIT” , said Michael Them Rasmussen, General Director of CMIT . “With state-of-the-art equipment, highly trained and dedicated people and already high berth productivity, we are sure we can deliver on Maersk Line’s high expectations of us. We are looking forward to a successful partnership with Maersk Line over the coming years” he added.
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Source: APM Terminals, August 16, 2011.