Blue for ZIM

Some shipping companies have distinctive colour schemes (Maersk comes to mind immediately) but others are satisfied with serviceable black and white. ZIM is certainly one of the latter, so it was a bit of a surprise to see a blue hulled ZIM ship arriving today on the ZCA (ZIM Container Atlantic) service. Aptly named ZIM Atlantic, the ship carries an attractive medium blue hull and white superstructure, with what appears to be the start of a ZIM funnel marking (less the stars).

 This is not the harbinger of things to come however, but is a carry over of colours from the ship's last operators. Even that was not the ship's original hull colour, as photos on the internet show it with a red hull.

The ship was built in 2009 by Hyundai Heavy Indsutry Co Ltd in Ulsan as the CPO Richmond for the Claus-Peter Offen company of Hamburg, however it was delivered with the name Cap Harvey for charter to Hamburg-Süd and carried that company's traditional red hull paint.

In 2017 the ship moved to CMB NV ownership (Cie Maritime Belge) and managed by their wholly owned subsidiary Bocimar.  It then acquired the current blue paint and was renamed Heron Hunter. 

 In late 2021 or early 2022 ownership changed again, this time to direct ownership by ZIM with Hammonia Reederei of Hamburg, as managers. (Hammonia manages several other ZIM ships too.) The renaming to ZIM Atlantic was effective January 1, 2022.

The ship is due for class renewal next May, so is likely to be repainted then in ZIM black.

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