CMA CGM Jacques Saadé

The CMA CGM Jacques Saadé is the first megamax cotainer ship worldwide to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG). Its tank, with a volume of 18,600 cubic meters, lasts for up to two months. Four layers of insulation in the tank, including a stainless steel housing and high-technology sensors, ensure optimum LNG storage conditions and meet all safety requirements.

A New Flagship

The Jacques Saadé is the first in a series of nine new 23,000-TEU vessels which will join the CMA CGM Group fleet from 2020. These innovative container ships are the result of seven years of research and development by the experts at CMA CGM. The sister ships will bear the names of Parisian landmarks and other iconic sites of the French capital (Champs Elysées, Palais Royal, Louvre, Rivoli, Montmartre, Concorde, Trocadéro and Sorbonne). CMA CGM has chosen Total as its LNG supplier in a major industrial partnership.

Megamax Container Ships

• are built with a tactical display providing an improved view of the charts and enabling more dynamic navigation briefings;
• A “path prediction” system optimized to accurately predict the location of the vessel, taking into account the current turning rate and speed and the helm and speed orders, thus allowing for easier berthing and enabling the Captain to better anticipate the movement of the vessel;
• A "smart eye" projection system for visualising the vessel in its immediate environment. This is a new application on a containership and will make port operations easier;
• Augmented reality screens on the bridge, a global innovation providing additional information such as the vessel turning rate, its distance from the dock and its transversal speed.
• A BeckerTM Twisted Fin.This system improves the performance of the ship’s propellers by optimizing the water flow and significantly reducing the energy output and hence the release of CO2 into the atmosphere. With this new system, new CMA CGM vessels reduce their CO2 emissions by 4%.

A New World Record

Right away the vessel set a new record: When leaving Singapore on its maiden voyage from Asia to Europe, the Jacques Saadé had loaded a total of 20,723 TEU – more than any other container ship ever before. By comparison, the previous record was held by the "HMM Algeçiras" (capacity 23,964 TEU) of the Korean shipping company HMM. With a total of 19,621 TEU, the "Algeçiras" just about beat the previous record holder "MSC Gülsün".

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is produced by cooling conventional natural gas below its boiling point, −162 °C (−259 °F), and is stored in double-walled cryogenic containers at or slightly above atmospheric pressure. LNG is 600 times smaller than natural gas when the latter is in its gaseous form, and it can be easily shipped overseas. In the near future, it will be possible to reduce the use of conventional natural gas by producing more Bio-LNG. Bio-LNG could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent compared to diesel. Another alternative is so-called synthetic LNG, which is produced using a power-to-gas process. The synthetic form is virtually CO2-neutral because the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during combustion is taken from the air. Both alternatives, however, are still in developmental phases.

When the Jacques Saadé arrives in Hamburg on her maiden voyage, the megamax ship will already have visited the ports of Busan (South Korea) - Ningbo (China) - Shanghai (China) - Yantian (China) - Singapore (Singapore) - Malta - Southampton (England). The journey then continues from Hamburg to Rotterdam and Southampton, before proceeding to Asia. The "CMA CGM Jacques Saadé" will operate regularly on the "French Asia Line" (FAL 1) between Asia and Europe.

CMA CGM is a family owned and operated company founded by Jacques Saadé. Today, Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman & CEO, manages the CMA CGM Group with 110,000 employees in over 160 countries worldwide. From one ship, four employees and a single service between Beirut, Latakia, Livorno and Marseille, the company has developed into one of the world's leading container shipping and logistics groups with 502 ships with a total capacity of 2.705 million TEU. CMA CGM operates from 420 ports and 160 countries. The group also owns 750 warehouses and 110,000 dedicated employees work in 755 offices worldwide.

EUROGATE is Europe’s leading shipping line-independent container terminal operator. Together with the Italian terminal operator Contship Italia, Eurogate operates container terminals from the North Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The range of services is rounded off by intermodal and cargo-modal services. In 2019, the group handled more than 11.7 million TEU in Europe.