(CMR) PortMiami created history on Tuesday when the largest container ship, nearly three football fields long, to ever call at a Florida port docked there about 9 am.
The CMA CGM Argentina, a 15,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) vessel, arrived from Georgia, making the trip in a day.
The massive container ship, which was built in 2019 and being sailed under the flag of Malta, can hold roughly 15,000 20-foot cargo containers, Local News reported.
The ship which will bring more cargo into Miami could also set precedence for other such large vessels to start calling on the port.
“It really is amazing. I never thought I’d see a ship like this come in here,” Mark Baker, president of the South Florida Container Terminal, said.
Baker, who has been working at PortMiami for the past 40 years, said the large ship would provide more job opportunities.
“It means more jobs for truck drivers, more hours for the longshoreman that discharge and load the ship. So it’s a combination, and it also helps the community,” Baker told Local News.
Previously, large ships could not dock in PortMiami; however, recent expansions have changed that.
“Four or five years ago, we couldn’t handle these ships. They would stop at Savannah, which is the closest deep port to port, or go to New York,” Baker explained.
After departing South Florida, it will travel through the Suez Canal before making its final stop in Shanghai, China.
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