Rickmers adds Nagoya to RTW service

   Rickmers-Linie said Wednesday it will add Nagoya to the rotation of its Round-The-World (RTW) Pearl String service from September.
   The Japanese port will be served on a monthly basis, linking to the service’s other calls in Houston, New Orleans, Savannah, Philadelphia, Antwerp and Hamburg. The service also offers additional relay opportunities over Rickmers’ hub port in Houston to other ports in the Caribbean and Central and South America.
   The upgraded service will be operated with nine Rickmers Hamburg-class vessels, purpose-designed conventional vessels with strengthened pontoon tweendecks, hold lengths of up to 32 meters, and shipboard cranes that can be twinned to lift up to 640 metric tons. The ships are not dependent on the availability of landside heavy-lift cranes.