E.R.s latest giant boxship enters service

The Hamburg based shipping company E.R. Schiffahrt, which is part of the Nordcapital Group, Hamburg, has put another container ship into service recently. Named ?E.R. Toulouse?, the latest addition is a super-post-Panamax newbuilding with a container capacity of 8,204 teu. The newbuilding is part of ER?s fleet expansion programme which now totals 63 container ships with a capacity of around 282,000 teu in operation. By 2008, there will be a further 12 vessels with a total of 63,000 teu, all of them built at Hyundai in South Korea.

The ?E.R. Toulouse? will operate under the charter name ?CMA CGM Don Carlos? on the French Asia Line (FAL) for the French company CMA CGM, linking the Asia-Pacific region with Europe. She will call at the Port of Hamburg every 8 weeks, and her first call there is scheduled for the end of July.

The ?E.R. Toulouse? is the fifth in a nine-ship series of 8,200 teu newbuildings. All nine are for long-term chartering to leading shipping lines, three going to Cosco Container Lines and six to CMA CGM.