CMA CGM has held a naming ceremony for its newest methanol-powered container ship, CMA CGM Alceste.

The 15,000-TEU vessel, which is the latest addition to a series of six ships that the French carrier is naming after literary figures, has joined its BEX2 service under the command of Captain Li Qiang Wang.

Named and delivered on 24 September, CMA CGM Alceste is the final ship in CMA CGM’s six-vessel methanol dual-fuel 'KUN-15M' series from Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, China.

The boxship features a Hyundai-built MAN B&W 8G85ME-series low-speed two-stroke engine configured to operate on conventional marine fuel and methanol, enabling it to use methanol where the alternative fuel is available for bunkering while retaining the flexibility to trade on conventional fuel elsewhere.

CMA CGM’s BEX2, branded the Phoenician Express, is an Asia–Mediterranean container service linking Northeast and Southeast Asian load ports with Egypt, the Levant and the Adriatic. It is an Ocean Alliance loop designed to provide direct coverage of the Eastern Mediterranean.