Hapag-Lloyd starts Taicang barge service

Hapag-Lloyd starts Taicang barge service    Liner carrier Hapag-Lloyd said last week it has started a $100-per-TEU barge container service from the Yangtze River port of Taicang to Shanghai.
   The service is run in partnership with Hapag-Lloyd's booking agent in Taicang, Jiangsu Uniwill Logistics. The service began March 1 for linking with all trades except the transpacific. Barge service linking to the transpacific trade will start March 28.
   Taicang is the largest container terminal on the Yangtze, 30 miles upriver from Shanghai, but only one service has connected it directly with North America or Europe: The Containership Co.'s Great Dragon service, which started in April 2010 as a shuttle between Taicang and Los Angeles, but has since added calls in Ningbo and Qingdao.
   In Shanghai, Hapag-Lloyd's barge service will call at both the Yangshan deepwater port complex and the Waigaoqiao river terminals closer to central Shanghai.