French shipping company CMA CGM just deployed big container ships with a capacity of 10,000 TEU (Twenty Feet Equivalent Unit) between Asia and Africa to better respond to the rising trade between these continents. This was revealed by Le Marin on March 21.

Among the new big neo-panamax vessels are some bareboat chartered-in container ships. The ships are named after the children of Jacques Saadé, CEO of world’s third leader in shipping industry.

The new ships were deployed on Asaf lines which come from and go to Namibia, Angola, Congo Republic, and are connected to secondary ports that transship in Pointe Noire, Congo.

CMA CGM, which joins MSC by introducing big container ships which will connect Asian ports to those located along the Africa’s west coast, is thus providing 10 of the 13 ships operating on this route. Maersk has the remaining three (6,800 TEU each).

Four ship calls were added to the route (Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia, and at Coega, South Africa’s new deep water port). “The decision integrates our African expansion strategy,” CMA CGM said in a statement.