Accommodation has been made for the Honmoku D4 terminal in Yokohama to receive larger vessels of up to 14,000 TEU. The APL Esplanade arrived at the container port with 35 per cent more capacity than the smaller vessels deployed previously, reports London's Port Technology.

The vessel's arrival at the terminal was welcomed by representatives from CMA CGM Japan, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), the City of Yokohama and Yokohama Kawasaki International Port Corporation (YKIP).

Destined next for South Korea on the Asia Central South America 1 (ACSA1) service route, the APL Esplanade has called at Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Puerto Quetzal, Buenaventura, Guayaquil, and Callao before reaching Yokohama.

The ACSA1 service calls weekly at the Honmoku D4 terminal. Operated by CMA CGM, the terminal has a total annual operating capacity of over 400,000 TEU and contributes to about 15 per cent of Yokohama's port throughput.

Hideki Uchida, president of CMA CGM Japan, commented, "Our larger vessels will now cater to more inbound cargoes to Yokohama, particularly fresh fruits from Central and Southern America. With Japan's fresh fruits imports on the rise, this capacity upgrade is a timely relief to our consignees who can be assured of vessel space for their incoming shipments."

Hiroya Nakano, director general, Port and Harbour Bureau, City of Yokohama, commented: "This is the first time that the Honmoku D4 Terminal has been able to receive a large 14,000 TEU vessel. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all those involved for their cooperation during this period, and we will continue to provide both hardware and software support to improve the convenience of the port of Yokohama for the continued call of CMA CGM Group vessels."

The Port of Yokohama lead a new index launched earlier this year which is designed to rank the world's most efficient ports in container management.

East Asian ports including Yokohama in Japan and Qingdao in China led the rankings, with Yokohama taking just 1.1 minutes on average to load or unload a container in a standard port call.