Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT) celebrated a milestone with the arrival of the M/V CMA CGM Pelleas, a super-sized ship that docked at the Port of Melbourne.

At 350 meters in length, the container vessel is the largest to ever dock in Australia, with a carrying capacity of just under 10,000 TEUs and nearly 43 meters wide.

 [Source: ICTSI]

The CMA CGM Pelleas is deployed on the A3C service, which starts and finishes in Taiwan after a round trip via China, then on to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

VICT's chief executive officer, Bruno Porchietto, said that super-sized vessels like the CMA CGM Pelleas are likely to become more common at the VICT terminal.

"There is a global trend by shipping lines toward the use of larger ships, which are more efficient due to their carrying capacity," Porchietto says.

"We are very proud to welcome this ship as the largest yet to dock in Australia, and we are thankful to our client partners ANL and CMA CGM for their continued confidence in our facility.

It's a strong signal of where the future lies for the Port of Melbourne and VICT – by the end of the year, our facility will be capable of docking two of these vessels or even larger simultaneously," he added.

Porchietto noted that the VICT facility located at Webb Dock has significant advantages due to its location over the legacy terminals at Swanson Dock.

"Because our operations sit at the entrance to the Port, our facility can easily accommodate these larger vessels that are unable to sail further down into Melbourne's Yarra River due to length and height restrictions."

Meanwhile, VICT's expansion project at the Port of Melbourne is making good progress following the recent arrival of two new quay cranes from China.

Its parent company, ICTSI, said in the announcement that the cranes are the largest in Australia and form part of an AUD235 million expansion that will boost VICT's capacity up to 1.25 million TEUs when it is completed in late 2023.

ICTSI noted that it has so far invested more than AUD1 billion in its Melbo