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For Immediate Release
August 20, 2004
Oakland, Calif. (August 20, 2004) -The Port of Oakland proudly welcomes the arrival of one of the world’s largest container ships and the first 8,000 plus TEU (twenty-foot-equivalent) ship to enter the San Francisco Bay and call on the Port. The 8,200 TEU CMA CGM Hugo will make its maiden call at the Port of Oakland on Saturday, August 21, 2004. The Hugo will be welcomed at the Oakland International Container Terminal at berths 57 to 59.
The newly built CMA CGM Hugo is owned by a French company, Compagnie Maritime d’Affretement and Compagnie Generale Maritime formed through a merger in 1999. The ship is 1,096 feet long, longer than three football fields; 140.4 feet wide, 30 feet wider than the Panama Canal; with a draft of 47.6 feet when fully loaded. The Hugo is able to carry enough cargo to completely fill a 1 million-square-foot regional shopping center with TVs, toys, clothes, shoes, and other products stacked eight feet high.
“This is a milestone event for the Port,” said Jerry Bridges, Executive Director for the Port of Oakland. “This highlights the importance of maintaining our momentum with the -50 foot dredging project.” The -50 foot project, which began in 2001, will deepen the Port’s channel in order to accommodate fully-loaded mega-ships. The port will be at -46 feet by the end of this year, but the federal share of funding has lagged behind what is needed to get to -50 feet on the original timeline. “The Port is vital to the economy of the Bay Area. The dredging program must keep pace with the ever larger container ships being built and deployed—if we cannot accommodate these mega-ships, we will be bypassed,” Bridges added.
“Our recently completed Vision 2000 project developed the infrastructure at the port to accommodate this kind of growth and activity,” stated Wilson Lacy, Port Director of Maritime. The project recently converted a closed military facility, the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Industrial Supply Center Oakland, into two state-of-the-art container terminals, a near-dock rail yard, and other cargo facilities. The Port boasts 29 post-Panamax cranes of which 12 are super-Panamax with more on the way.
The Port of Oakland will be a regular port of call for the CMA CGM Hugo and is the beginning of a trend toward ever larger vessels. As more goods are transported globally, the size of the vessels increases to accommodate that growth. “I am glad that the Port of Oakland had the foresight to develop the infrastructure necessary to accommodate such size,” stated Patricia Scates, President of the Board of Port Commissioners.
“The Port of Oakland is the fourth largest container port in the United States and it is a key element to the economy of the region. The seaport is directly responsible for at least 9,100 jobs for the region and it contributes $1.7 billion to the area economy,” said Scates.
The Hugo is among a new generation of 8,000 TEU vessels that will begin calling on Oakland. The Hugo is the first of seventeen 8,200 TEU vessels that CMA CGM has ordered from shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea. CMA CGM will deploy five of the giant vessels in a transpacific service with Swiss alliance partner, Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), which calls in China in Xiamen, Yantian, and Kong Kong, then Busan (South Korea), Long Beach, and Oakland.
“This is a new service that CMA CGM has implemented. We believe that including Oakland as a port of call will benefit all parties,” said Chris Lytle, CMA CGM Director of Operations West Coast (America).
The Port of Oakland was established in 1927 as an independent department of the City of Oakland. The Port of Oakland oversees Oakland International Airport, the Oakland seaport, and 19 miles of waterfront. The Oakland seaport handled a record 1.9 million TEUs in 2003 and is the fourth busiest container port in the United States.
Port of Oakland Contact:
Harold Jones
Director of Communications
(510) 627-1564
(510) 719-6781 - after hours
hjones@portoakland.com |
