China Shipping Container Line will operate eight of its own ships and add Norfolk as a port on an Asia-to-East Coast service that it previously operated jointly with CMA CGM.
CMA CGM withdrew its four ships from the joint service after forming a separate trans-Pacific alliance with Maersk Line. China Shipping will operate the revised service on its own.
China Shipping's new AAE1 (Asia America East 1) service will operate via the Panama Canal with eight 4,020-TEU, 24-knot vessels. The port rotation will be New York-New Jersey, Norfolk, Savannah, Miami, through the canal to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Yantian, and back to New York-New Jersey.
Transit time will be 23 days between Yantian, the last Asian port, and New York, the first U.S. port, and from Miami to Shanghai, the last-out, first-in ports in the other direction.
To permit the addition of the Norfolk port call, the revised service discontinues a call that the previous joint service had made at Busan, Korea.
Joseph Alagna, vice president of U.S. sales at China Shipping, said Norfolk is growing in importance because of its proximity to mid-Atlantic distribution centers and its intermodal rail connections to the Midwest, which will be enhanced by the Heartland Corridor project.
Alagna also said that by operating solo, China Shipping will be able to concentrate the service's Asian calls at ports fed by Chinese river, coastwise and domestic truck and rail services.
The first U.S.-bound sailing from China under the new service will be that of the CSCL New York from Shanghai on May 5. The first Asia-bound sailing will be that of the CSCL Felixstowe from New York-New Jersery on May 26.
CMA CGM withdrew its four ships from the joint service after forming a separate trans-Pacific alliance with Maersk Line. China Shipping will operate the revised service on its own.
China Shipping's new AAE1 (Asia America East 1) service will operate via the Panama Canal with eight 4,020-TEU, 24-knot vessels. The port rotation will be New York-New Jersey, Norfolk, Savannah, Miami, through the canal to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Yantian, and back to New York-New Jersey.
Transit time will be 23 days between Yantian, the last Asian port, and New York, the first U.S. port, and from Miami to Shanghai, the last-out, first-in ports in the other direction.
To permit the addition of the Norfolk port call, the revised service discontinues a call that the previous joint service had made at Busan, Korea.
Joseph Alagna, vice president of U.S. sales at China Shipping, said Norfolk is growing in importance because of its proximity to mid-Atlantic distribution centers and its intermodal rail connections to the Midwest, which will be enhanced by the Heartland Corridor project.
Alagna also said that by operating solo, China Shipping will be able to concentrate the service's Asian calls at ports fed by Chinese river, coastwise and domestic truck and rail services.
The first U.S.-bound sailing from China under the new service will be that of the CSCL New York from Shanghai on May 5. The first Asia-bound sailing will be that of the CSCL Felixstowe from New York-New Jersery on May 26.