en.Wedoany.com Reported - French shipping group CMA CGM held a naming ceremony for its newly built 15,000 TEU methanol-powered container ship "CMA CGM Roi Arthur," which will subsequently be deployed on the Red Sea Express 2 (REX2) service.

The REX2 service is a weekly operation, jointly run by nine vessels including this new ship, connecting major ports in Asia and Southeast Asia with the Red Sea and the Middle East. CMA CGM stated that the addition of this new vessel will strengthen its next-generation fleet designed to advance maritime decarbonization, with the methanol-powered propulsion system helping to reduce atmospheric emissions and drive the industry's energy transition.

Following maritime tradition, the naming ceremony was co-hosted by Captain Roman Didenko and godmother Sun Lijun. Sun Lijun currently serves as Vice President of Tianjin Bridge Welding Materials Co., Ltd. and Vice President of the Asociación de Mujeres Empresarias de Tianjin.

Once the vessel enters service, it will provide direct access for import, export, and transshipment operations at key ports such as Djibouti, Sokhna, and Jeddah. The service network also strategically connects the Red Sea with Abu Dhabi, facilitating intra-regional transport in the Middle East and accelerating cargo shipments from Jeddah to Europe, supplemented by a dedicated feeder network covering other secondary destinations in the region.

To support these operations, CMA CGM has deployed a diversified fleet along this corridor, ranging from feeder vessels to large ultra-large container ships. The recently added "CMA CGM Esmeralda" has also joined, with the fleet also including larger-tonnage vessels such as the "CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin" (17,859 TEU) and "CMA CGM Apollon" (15,536 TEU) to ensure operational support and reefer cargo transport capacity across the entire corridor. In its press release, CMA CGM extended its best wishes to the "CMA CGM Roi Arthur" and its crew.