Taiwan's Evergreen Line will replace ships now provided by its old partner Cosco Container Lines to continue its weekly Far East Mexico Panama service on its own.
Before Cosco quits its old joint service arrangement on May 25, Evergreen has commenced talks with carriers over slot charters, said a company spokeswoman.
The revamped service will call at the new port of Lazaro Cardenas, on the Mexican west coast, a port viewed as an end run to beat possible LA-Long Beach congestion and clogging rail lines there to the US hinterland.
The round trip will take 55 days, requiring eight ships for a weekly frequency. Deploying ships in the 2,728-TEU to 3,428-TEU range, Evergreen will restart the China-US East Coast Service (CUE) under the name of the Far East-Panama Service (FPS) from Kaohsiung with the eastbound departure of the Aphrodite, reported American Shipper.
The new rotation will be: Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Lazaro Cardenas, Cristobal and back to Kaohsiung. The service will have a round voyage of 55 days, requiring eight ships for a weekly frequency although the current sailing schedule only lists seven vessels.
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