China's second-biggest container shipping company has shocked maritime experts by provisionally scheduling a July call at the port of Nansha in a move which would be the facility's first visit from a vessel on the deep-sea trades.
China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), the box shipping arm of state-owned China Shipping Group, this week inked in Nansha as its fifth mainland port of call on the westbound leg of a service linking Asia and Europe.
The provisional schedule, earmarked for its 'AEX 3' service and distributed by CSCL executives to sales agents, has the loop beginning from Shanghai in late June and using 5,600-teu (20-ft equivalent units) capacity vessels.
The plans, which would require at least 12 metres of water for safe passage of the vessels up the depth-constrained Pearl River, were met with incredulity from several trade executives yesterday.
'A ship of that size cannot be handled at Nansha,' a Hong Kong-based executive from a European shipping company said. 'There are some opportunities for bulk and [roll-on, roll-off] cargo. But not deep-sea container ships, and certainly not ones that size.'
One Hong Kong port executive called the plan 'wishful thinking'. According to Guangzhou's grand design for Nansha, the facility is to eventually have '50 berths' capable of handling 50,000-deadweight tonne (dwt) deep-sea vessels.