Two major container-shipping lines, Maersk Line and CMA CGM, officially launched their new joint service at the Port of Seattle when the SeaLand New York arrived at the port’s Terminal facility on Sunday.
Seattle is the first inbound port-of-call on the Asia-West Coast leg of the service. The port rotation is Tanjung Pelepas, Hong Kong, Yantian, Shanghai, Busan, Seattle, Vancouver, Tanjung Pelepas.
The two carriers will place 14 ships on the “pendulum” service, which also swings to the U.S. East Coast from Asia via the Suez canal. Each ship has a capacity of 6,500 TEUs, or twenty-foot equivalent cargo containers.
“This is a great new service that takes advantage of Seattle’s technologically advanced terminals and outstanding intermodal capabilities,” said Charlie Sheldon, the port’s managing director. “We’re happy to have these two leading carriers in our harbor and we look forward to working with them to grow our port.”
The service should give the port a boost in a year when all of the West Coast’s container ports are struggling due to the recession and declining trade on trans-Pacific trade routes. Seattle’s total container volume declined more than 25 percent through April, compared to the same period last year.
Seattle also hosted the two largest container vessels ever to call at the port early this month, the Mette Maersk and the Marit Maersk. Each ship can carry the equivalent of 9,000 TEUs.
The two behemoths were repositioning containers in advance of the joint service launch by Maersk and CMA CGM.
Seattle is the first inbound port-of-call on the Asia-West Coast leg of the service. The port rotation is Tanjung Pelepas, Hong Kong, Yantian, Shanghai, Busan, Seattle, Vancouver, Tanjung Pelepas.
The two carriers will place 14 ships on the “pendulum” service, which also swings to the U.S. East Coast from Asia via the Suez canal. Each ship has a capacity of 6,500 TEUs, or twenty-foot equivalent cargo containers.
“This is a great new service that takes advantage of Seattle’s technologically advanced terminals and outstanding intermodal capabilities,” said Charlie Sheldon, the port’s managing director. “We’re happy to have these two leading carriers in our harbor and we look forward to working with them to grow our port.”
The service should give the port a boost in a year when all of the West Coast’s container ports are struggling due to the recession and declining trade on trans-Pacific trade routes. Seattle’s total container volume declined more than 25 percent through April, compared to the same period last year.
Seattle also hosted the two largest container vessels ever to call at the port early this month, the Mette Maersk and the Marit Maersk. Each ship can carry the equivalent of 9,000 TEUs.
The two behemoths were repositioning containers in advance of the joint service launch by Maersk and CMA CGM.