[120517.EN.SEA] Mega Ships Under New Alliances Call At Virginia And Vancouver

THE Port of Virginia has welcomed the 13,100-TEU "Cosco Development," calling at the Virginia International Gateway (VIG) terminal in Portsmouth, its second mega ship in as many days, after Global Container Terminals' GCT Deltaport in Vancouver received Hapag-Lloyd's 13,200 TEU "Antwerpen Express," the largest containership to visit a Canadian port.

According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the Antwerpen Express is deployed on THE Alliance's transpacific Pacific North 3 (PN3) service that deploys six vessels with an average capacity of 10,886 TEU. The port rotation is: Hong Kong, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Pusan, Vancouver, Seattle, Busan, returning to Hong Kong.

On the US east coast, the 13,100-TEU Cosco Development also called at the Virginia International Gateway (VIG) terminal in Portsmouth. The ship is owned by Seaspan Corp and chartered to Cosco. It operates the OCEAN Alliance's South Atlantic Express (SAX) service, reported American Shipper.

The SAX, deploys 11 vessels with an average of 12,137 TEU on the following port rotation of: Hong Kong, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Colon (PA), Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston, and Hong Kong.

Executive director of the Virginia Port Authority John Reinhart said last month that with the new ocean-carrier alliances becoming operational in April "we will be seeing more big ships, like the Cosco Development, moving considerable amounts of cargo."

Last week, the Port of New York and New Jersey said that after June 30 larger ships would be able to begin calling terminals in New Jersey and on Staten Island because sufficient demolition of the lower roadway of the Bayonne Bridge had been completed to allow ships carrying up to 18,000 TEU to pass beneath the span.

Source : HKSG.