[081115.EN.SEA] Gothenburg Port To Welcome MSC's 19,000-TEU Ships From December

MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Company's (MSC) 19,000-TEU ships are to start calling at the APM Terminal in the Swedish port of Gothenburg from December, deployed on the carrier's Asia-Europe service that is jointly operated with Maersk Line.

This year MSC has launched four 19,224-TEU Oscar class vessels and another 16 are on the way. Several of these mega-ships will be included in the MSC rotation between Gothenburg and the Far East. The first to call at the port will be the MSC Maya, followed by her sister ship MSC Zoe in January.

"MSC Maya and MSC Zoe and their sister ships exemplify MSC's global hunger to grow our business," managing director of MSC Sweden, Lars Rexius, was quoted as saying in a report by World Cargo News.

"We are very pleased they will be calling at Gothenburg, as they will allow us to increase capacity and offer even more competitive transport between Sweden and Asia."

Managing director at APM Terminals Gothenburg, Henrik Kristensen, added: "This call will be the largest one since we took over the container terminal almost four years ago. Since the start, we have invested over SEK800 million (US$92.73 million) on several improvements, for example new cranes and extended rail tracks. Now we have an almost new terminal with an increased productivity and capacity."

Source : HKSG.