CMA CGM Carmen

The Port Authority of Dunkirk (PAD) announced that CMA CGM is introducing Dunkirk into the rotation of its FAL3 service (French Asia Line), which will arrive from China beginning August 5th, with the stopover of the CMA CGM Carmen.

This service, which is currently maintained by a fleet of nine ships with a capacity of 6,500 to 8,500 teu each, will call at the Chinese ports of Qingdao, Ningbo, Xiamen, Chiwan, Yantian, then, after a port call in Le Havre, Dunkirk will be the 2nd port in Western Europe to welcome the ships before their Northern European tour.

On the export end, this line will serve the ports of Beirut, Jeddah and Port Kelang in Malaysia, which has connections throughout Southeast Asia.

It is the first time that Dunkirk will benefit from such a short, direct link with the Eastern coast of China ' transit time will be just over 20 days.

The FAL3 will call in Dunkirk at the NFTI container terminal, in which Terminal Link, the handling subsidiary of CMA CGM, is a major shareholder.

Jean-Claude Terrier, General Manager of the PAD, is delighted by this news: "We are particularly proud and enthusiastic about this important port call by CMA CGM, the third largest container company in the world. CMA CGM is also a major customer of the Port of Dunkirk, with routes to and from the French West Indies, the Pacific, and Morocco, not to mention the Delmas roll-on/roll-off ships with lines to West Africa. This new FAL3 service will perfectly suit the needs of loaders and forwarders in Northern and Eastern France as well as those on the Belgium border.'

With this announcement, CMA CGM has sent a clear signal to the PAD and the entire port community that it intends to strengthen its presence in Dunkirk.