APM Terminals announced that it won direct Asian service calls to east coast of South America. The joint service deployed by Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, ZIM, Hyundai and Hamburg Sud prefers their vessels call APM Terminals’ facilities in Itajai, Brazil, and T4 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The weekly Asian service, operated jointly with 13 vessels from Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, Zim, Hamburg Süd and Hyundai, will call the Asian ports of Kelang, Singapore, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Shekou and Busan. The service will begin August 25th with the arrival of the first vessel into Terminal 4 Buenos Aires.
In Brazil, the first vessel is scheduled to arrive at APM Terminals Itajaí on September 9th. The service will call bi-weekly through April 2018, due to turning basin restrictions for six of the 13 vessels in the string which exceed 300 meters in length. With the completion of the expanded turning basin in the Itajai/Navegantes river complex next year, weekly service will be introduced.
Ricardo Arten, Managing Director of APM Terminals in Brazil said “This is the second Asia/East Coast South America service available in Itajaí, which already handles the ASAS service operated by Maersk Line, MSC and MOL.”
Argentina’s annual container throughput in 2016 was 1.59 million TEUs. Buenos Aires, which handled 1.4 million TEUs last year, is the fourth-busiest container port in South America.
Itajaí, located in Southern Brazil, in the State of Santa Catarina, is in the second-largest container port complex in Brazil with a throughput of 1.1 million TEUs in 2016. APM Terminals Itajaí handled 200,000 TEUs last year.
