CMA CGM completes China’s first LNG SIMOPS bunkering

CMA CGM Symi is deployed on the PRX line connecting China and the US and was refuelled at Yangshan Port. Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) provided LNG from the Haigang Weilai, a new 20,000 m3 LNG bunkering vessel, the largest such vessel in the world. The 160 metre vessel was launched in January 2021 at Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard for CIMC Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering.

CMA CGM and SIPG signed a 10-year LNG bunkering agreement in January for CMA CGM’s vessels sailing from China to the US at Yangshan Port.

The CMA CGM Group’s “e-methane ready” fleet consists of 26 vessels already in service, and it plans to have a fleet of 44 e-methane ready vessels by the end of 2024. A dozen new dual-fuel vessels currently being built in China for the Group will feature Wärtsilä technology and propulsion solutions along with an LNG fuel gas supply system. GTT won the contract to supply the LNG containment systems.

CMA CGM has joined the United Nations’ Race to Zero initiative to become a Net Zero Carbon company by 2050 and has chosen to invest in dual-fuel vessels since 2017. The Group says LNG-powered vessel is an important first step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the engines installed on these vessels are capable of, and already are, using BioLNG (-67% in CO₂ emissions). In the coming years, those engines will use synthetic methane (including e-methane).

Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the CMA CGM Group, said “With the completion of this joint project, our group is the first shipping line to bunker LNG in China and the first to offer full LNG-fuelled container service between China and the U.S. West Coast. By expanding the network of world-class ports offering LNG services, this bunkering marks an important step in the energy transition.”

In January 2022, CMA CGM and TotalEnergies launched Marseilles’ inaugural ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation in the Port of Marseille Fos, France. The CMA CGM Bali, a 15,000 TEU LNG-powered containership is deployed on the MEX 1 service, connecting Asia and South Europe, was refuelled by TotalEnergies’ Gas Vitality, the first LNG bunker vessel based in France, with around 6,000m3 of LNG.

In November 2017, CMA CGM became the first shipowner in the world to equip its flagship 23,000-TEU vessels with dual-fuel engines.