CMA CGM Thalassa

 It was a return appearance today for one of CMA CGM's "ultras". One of the nineteen ships in the Columbus JAX rotation it was once in the cohort of largest ships to call in Halifax. That was as recently as 2019 when cracking the 10,000 TEU mark was the record to strive for. Now the 17,000 TEU mark is the number to beat.

Built in 2008 by Daewoo Shipbuilding + Marine Engineering in Okpo, it is one of five ships of the Daewoo 11000 class. At 128,600 gt, 131,938 dwt it has a capacity 10,980 TEU including 700 reefers. A slightly larger fleet mate CMA CGM Libra preceded the ship in Halifax in January 2019 and its capacity of 11,388 TEU held the record for largest ship for a short time. However numbers can be complicated as my Shipfax post of  February 7, 2019 explained.

In comparing photos from 2019 with today's arrival, the ship appears to have loaded one more (an eighth) tier of boxes, compared to the seven tiers in 2019. Business is certainly booming as are charter rates for ships. Ships of this size are routinely being chartered for well in excess of $100,000 per day as compared to the $47,200 quoted in the 2019 post.

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