CMA CGM this Thursday, July 2, in Le Havre the "Notre Dame", the first of a new series of ten next-generation container ships powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) that the French shipping company will incorporate into its fleet by 2028. The vessel, measuring 399 meters in length and 61.3 meters in width, becomes the largest container ship sailing under a French flag and the largest in the world powered by LNG.
With a capacity of up to 24,000 TEUs, the Notre Dame set off on its inaugural journey loaded with more than 24,000 eco-friendly containers made from bamboo and pine, a material that reduces the weight of the units and their environmental footprint. LNG propulsion significantly reduces emissions of sulfur oxides, fine particles, nitrogen oxides, and CO₂ compared to conventional marine fuels. The vessel's length also sits at the maximum limit allowed to transit through the Suez Canal, a route that large container ships have largely avoided over the past eighteen months.
The baptism ceremony brought together around 400 guests at the Port 2000 docks, the terminal of Générale Manutention Portuaire in Le Havre, including maritime authorities, local representatives, economic partners, and the ship's crew. Delphine Arnault, the eldest daughter of businessman Bernard Arnault and head of one of the LVMH group's fashion brands, served as godmother. Among the attendees were Brigitte Macron, wife of the French president; Édouard Philippe, former prime minister and current mayor of Le Havre; and two members of the French Government: Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot and Secretary of State Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, a former deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône.
The name of the vessel pays tribute to the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, whose reconstruction after the 2019 fire was completed in five years and which the French Government has cited as a reference model for other major industrial projects in the country. The nine remaining vessels in the series will bear the names of other French monuments and emblematic spaces: Pantheon, Orsay, Luxembourg, Versailles, Pont-Neuf, Nation, Austerlitz, Montmartre, and Longchamp, and will enter service gradually until 2028.
