Peter T. Leach, Senior Editor | Mar 21, 2012 9:08AM EDT
Cosco Container Lines and Hanjin Shipping plan to launch a new service between the Far East, Panama and Houston at the end of April.
The two carriers, part of the CKYH Green Alliance among Cosco, “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin, will deploy eight Panamax container ships with capacities of 4,000 20-foot equivalent units apiece on the new service. Cosco will deploy six of the ships, and Hanjin, two.
The two carriers call the new service the Gulf of Mexico Express, or GME.
The port rotation will be: Busan, Shanghai (Waigaoqiao Terminal), Ningbo, Xiamen, Yantian, Colon, Houston and back to Busan.
This new service will cover the Gulf of Mexico and the southern part of the U.S. (Houston area) including the Caribbean Sea region offering wide service coverage with feeder network.
It is designed to provide a transit time of 24 days from Yantian to Houston and 27 days from East China to Houston.
Hanjin this week announced plans for two other joint services between Asia and the U.S. West Coast.
Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.