CMA CGM Marco Polo Becomes Biggest Ship to Dock on East Coast

CMA CGM Marco Polo arrived at the Port of New York and New Jersey Thursday, becoming the largest ship to ever call on the U East Coast. The ship previously called in Halifax, marking its first stop and setting the North America east coast size record.

At 396 meters long and 53 meters wide, the vessel is only about 150-feet shorter than the Empire State Building is tall. It has a capacity of 16,022 twenty-foot equivalent containers. Delivered in 2012, CMA CGM Marco Polo actually held the title as the largest containership in the world, overtaking Maersk’s E-Class which included Emma Maersk.

CMA CGM Marco Polo is deployed on the weekly Columbus JAX service connecting South Asia with North America’s East Coast. It first arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia on May 17, setting a new size record there. After New York/New Jersey, it will call at Port of Virginia (May 23), Port of Savannah (May 26) and Port of Charleston (May 28), where it will also break records.

The vessel is now docked at the APM Terminals’ Port Elizabeth container terminal in New Jersey.

CMA CGM says the debut of ship on the JAX reflects an increase in capacity.

“The deployment of the CMA CGM MARCO POLO is yet another indicator of our flexibility and commitment to delivering the essentials that keep America moving,” said Ed Aldridge, President of CMA CGM America and APL North America. “It is also important to mention that this milestone would not be possible without the efforts of our port partners on the East Coast. Their intelligent, timely infrastructure improvements to support larger ships make it possible for us to proactively respond to the needs of our customers.”

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