16,000 teu CMA CGM ship makes size record in Indonesia

With Southeast Asia increasingly forecast to take a greater slice of manufacturing away from China, liner trades are upgrading their service offerings.

The largest containership to ever call in Indonesia arrived in Jakarta today. The 16,000 teu CMA CGM Alexander Von Humboldt dropped anchor at Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) today, marking the first of three CMA CGM’s 16,000 teu series to be calling JICT. The ship is deployed on the CMA CGM Columbus JAX (JAX) service which directly connects Jakarta and the US.

“This development is designed to facilitate increased trade volumes between Indonesia and her second largest export market, which is forecasting a double-digit export growth by the end of 2022,” CMA CGM stated in a release today.

Similar new containership size records are being registered this year at other up and coming Southeast Asian manufacturing powerhouses such as Vietnam.

Many are watching today’s changing geopolitical situation with concern, suggesting the glory years of so called Chimerica are coming to a close.

According to World Bank figures, China represented just 9.4% of global manufacturing capacity in 2005 with the US and Japan being number one and two at 21.8% and 13.5% respectively. By 2020, China had propelled itself to the top spot with 28.5%, while the West’s share declined from 70.5% to 53.2% – including Japan and South Korea, a 17-point decline almost exactly matching China’s 19-point gain.

However, this dominance looks to have peaked this year with covid, a more strident China, and tensions along the Taiwan Strait all playing their part in many companies looking for alternative places to manufacture their goods lately.

“The developments we have seen – especially in 2022 – is leading to a situation where companies over the next five years to some degree will be shifting production out of China – most likely to other locations across Asia,” Lars Jensen, CEO of liner consultancy Vespucci Maritime, told sister title Splash Extra earlier this year.