OREANDA-NEWS. February 18, 2010. FCT for the first time handled Maersk Nimes vessel, the godmother of which is NCC President, Alyona Ashurkova.

The containership arrived at FCT from Ecuador, with additional loading in Rotterdam and Bremerhaven. Within its first call at FCT, Maersk Nimes discharged 538 TEU and took aboard 1500 TEU.

The ceremony of christening and name giving was held on the 27th August 2009 in Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Korea. Maersk Nimes is one of the five ocean containerships of N-series which started to call FCT in 2010. There will be six ice class vessels in the series in total with in-take capacity of 2500 TEU and 600 reefer plugs each, the last one is scheduled to be put in service in April 2010. The N-series was ordered by Maersk Line to ensure all year round connection between South America and St.Petersburg with a special emphasis on banana cargo shipped in reefer boxes. “The new service is highly demanded by the clients since it ensures a direct connection between Latin America and Russia without transshipment in the European ports”, – said Maersk Line representative.

NCC President, Alyona Ashurkova noted: “I thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of being the god mother for one of these majestic vessels and same puts on me an exceptional responsibility. I am sure this good tradition has brought National Container Company and Maersk Line, the leaders in their own respective market segments, even closer”.