Safmarine Cameroun makes its entry

MARKING A significant milestone, the first of Safmarine’s three new containerships purpose-built for the Europe-West Africa trade, the Safmarine Cameroun, was named at the Volkswerft Stralsund shipyard in Germany at the weekend. It’s the first newly-built Safmarine containership in more than 10 years and the first to be purchased by the line since its acquisition by the AP Moller-Maersk Group five years ago, CEO Howard Boyd said. The vessel is geared and specially designed to accommodate the length and draft restrictions of a number of West African ports, liner director and CEO-designate Ivan Heesom-Green told FTW. Each vessel has a nominal capacity of 2100 TEUs and is equipped with reefer plugs. Safmarine will also begin repacing its ‘Big White’ containerships on the Europe-South Africa service this year. The first of the new ships will enter service during December.