[290613.EN.SEA] Historic Ship Ends Days: Early Over-panamax Ship To Be Ccrapped By APL

SINGAPORE's APL, the container shipping unit of Neptune Orient Lines, has sent to scrap in India one of the first over-panamax containerships built.

The 4,528 TEU President Adams, harking back to the days when APL stood for American President Lines, built in Germany in 1988, arrived at Alang in India on June 23, reported Alphaliner.

APL will scrap three more such ships in July - the President Jackson, the President Polk and the President Truman as they reach the end of their last voyages on APL's Far East-US east coast via Suez SZX service.

These four ships flew the US flag, allowing APL to carry US government and military cargo, in particular to the Middle East, and were also part of the US Military Security Programme. The fifth C-10, APL Kennedy, will continue to sail on the APL network for the moment.

APL will continue to deploy five US-flag containerships of 5,000-5,500 TEU on the new G6 FE-USEC AZX string (also calling in Middle East eastbound), in alternate weeks with non-US flag tonnage. Four of these ships were previously deployed on the SZX alongside the C-10s, while a fifth unit APL Japan will be removed from US flag service and replaced with the APL Belgium.

Source : HKSG.