CMA CGM took delivery of the CMA CGM Notre Dame on 12 May from Chinese builder Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, marking the start of a 10-ship XXL series that combines record container capacity with LNG propulsion. At 24,212 TEU, the vessel is the largest containership ever to fly the French flag and is already running its first commercial loop between Asia and Europe.
A new generation for the France-Asia Line
The 400-metre vessel, taller than wide at 75 by 62 metres, is the first of ten sister ships scheduled for delivery by end-2028. All units will be named after French heritage sites and registered under the French International Register. Notre Dame is operated by a crew of around thirty under the command of Nicolas Le Scornet.
The ship has been deployed on the France-Asia Line, a backbone service connecting Ningbo, Shanghai and Yantian to Le Havre, Rotterdam and Hamburg via Singapore, with Antwerp, Tanger and Malaysia on the return leg. The full loop takes 105 days. After 41 days at sea, the vessel is set for an official inauguration in Le Havre on 2 July.
LNG propulsion at the heart of the Net Zero plan
The XXL programme captures two parallel trends, the persistent race for scale in deep-sea container shipping and a sharper focus on decarbonization through alternative fuels. CMA CGM rolled out its first LNG-powered XXL vessel, the Jacques Saadé (23,112 TEU), in 2020, followed by eight more units of the same class.
The new generation extends capacity by several hundred TEU per ship while keeping LNG as the primary fuel. The series fits into the group’s broader target of reaching net zero carbon by 2050, with a phased push toward lower-emission propulsion across one of the world’s largest container fleets.
