APL has announced two new Asia-US East Coast services: one that offers an alternative routing to the Panama Canal, and one via Panama.

APL is to launch an industry first all-water service connecting South East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent with the US East Coast via the Suez Canal.

From July, the weekly Suez Express (SZX) will deploy eight 4,000-4,500 TEU vessels, five provided by APL and three by the carrier’s New World Alliance partners - Hyundai Merchant Marine and Mitsui OSK Lines.

According to APL CEO Ron Widdows, port and rail congestion in North America are very real issues, since customers are increasingly diversifying their supply chains throughout the Asia region as well as the gateways they are using to move cargo into the US market.

APL’s SZX service complements the carrier’s other Suez and Transpacific services, and will offer transit times from Singapore of 21 days to New York, 24 days to Charleston and 25 days to Savannah.

The SZX port rotation will be: Singapore > Colombo > New York > Charleston > Savannah > Norfolk > Jebel Ali > Port Kelang > Singapore.

In addition to US-bound cargo originating from the service’s direct ports of call, the SZX will attract cargo via feeder services from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The service will also be competitive for markets such as Hong Kong, South China and even Western Australia.

While the SZX will offer shippers a complementary alternative to the Panama Canal, which is reaching full capacity, Panama remains an integral part of APL’s service offering. APL has also announced the launch of a new all-water service between key Chinese ports and the US East Coast via the Panama Canal.

From June 4th, the new weekly service, (named ESX by The New World Alliance and SAX by CMA CGM) will deploy eight 3,500-3,800 TEU vessels (two operated by MOL, one by APL, three by Hyundai Merchant Marine and two by CMA CGM) on a 56-day rotation.

The ESX / SAX port rotation will be: Ningbo (Mon / Tue) > Shanghai (Wed / Thu) > Chiwan (Fri / Sat) > Hong Kong (Sat / Sun) > Manzanillo, Panama (Fri / Fri) > Savannah (Mon / Tue) > New York (Wed / Fri) > Norfolk (Fri / Sat) > Ningbo (Mon / Tue).

Transit times to Savannah will be 22 days from Hong Kong, 25 days from Shanghai and 27 days from Ningbo, and to New York will be 24, 27 and 29 days respectively.