Atlantic Coastal to launch new cabotage, feeder services

The first sailings of the Miami-based ocean carrier’s new services are targeted for mid-late November, according to Atlantic Coastal Shipping President and CEO Armando Bustillo.    Atlantic Coastal Shipping (ACS), a Miami-based freight transport company, intends to begin a new regular weekly fixed-day Atlantic cabotage service, as well as a regular fixed nine-day Caribbean feeder service later this year.
   The first sailings are targeted for mid-late November, company President and CEO Armando Bustillo said in a statement Aug. 7.
   ACS plans to establish a cabotage service linking PortMiami in Florida with Port Newark in New Jersey, with the preferred vessel for the trade being a U.S.-flagged vessel. The vessel would load tonnage in PortMiami for Port Newark-Port New York, plus transshipment boxes for Europe traveling through Port Newark. When traveling in the other direction, the vessel would load southbound tonnage for Miami, the Caribbean Islands and Panama, according to ACS.
   The cabotage service, according to ACS, would relieve I-95 highway corridor infrastructure and reduce growing traffic congestion, as well as fossil fuel consumption, contamination and cargo theft.
   “When Congress allocates the funds for the President’s National Infrastructure Renewal Program our cabotage service will be the only, efficient, secure, cheap logistic intermodal transportation option for US Government and private cargoes for an I-95 under construction,” the company said in a statement.
   Under the proposed infrastructure plan, the federal government would spend $200 billion on infrastructure projects while incentivizing private businesses to also pay for its projects, with full spending, if state and local contributions are added in as well, totaling $1 trillion.
   In addition to the cabotage service, ACS has said that it is establishing a Caribbean feeder vessel service that would cover the four major transshipment hubs in the Caribbean, Cristobal, Panama; Kingston, Jamaica; Freeport, Bahamas; and PortMiami on a regular nine day port rotation with a geared foreign flag container vessel.
   The feeder vessel, Atlantic Container Shipping said, would generate inter-island and island cargo for Miami transshiping in Miami and Newark.
   In a letter, PortMiami said that it “recognizes the value of the Marine Highway concept” to minimize congestion and increase port cargo.
   “We support and and sponsor the approval of Atlantic Coastal Shipping’s project in establishing a cabotage service linking Miami, Fla. with Newark, NJ,” PortMiami assistant developer of business development and marketing Hydi Webb said.
   Bustillo said an update on the services’ launch is expected to be posted on his company’s website in early to mid-October, 45 days prior to the first sailings.