CSAV directly links Subcontinent/Long Beach

CSAV directly links Subcontinent/Long Beach    Chilean carrier CSAV said Tuesday it will commence a new service in mid-September connecting the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and key ports in China with Long Beach.
   The standalone service, offered by the line's CSAV Norasia subsidiary, will operate with 11 3,500-TEUs vessels provided by CSAV. It is a unique service in that it will provide direct connection from four ports in the Indian Subcontinent — Karachi in Pakistan, Colombo in Sri Lanka, and Nhava Sheva and Mundra in India — to the biggest U.S. container gateway. Colombo is called eastbound and westbound.
   The rotation is Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Port Klang, Colombo, Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Karachi, Colombo, Port Klang, Ho Chi Minh City, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Long Beach and Busan.
   According to American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data, only one other service directly connects any Subcontinent port with the West Coast of North America — Evergreen's UAM service, which calls at Colombo and Tacoma and Vancouver (ironically, CSAV is a slot buyer on the Evergreen service).
   But transit time between Colombo and North America on the UAM is 61 days. CSAV did not specify what the transit times would be between Subcontinent ports and Long Beach on its new ASIAM service, but they would likely be much shorter. The ASIAM would also be the first service to directly call any U.S. Southwest port from the Subcontinent.
   Maersk Line operates a pendulum service that connects Middle East ports to Los Angeles via the transpacific, but that service (the TP6) bypasses the Indian Subcontinent, offering no direct calls.
   The vast majority of direct Indian Subcontinent calls to North America come via U.S. East Coast services that transit the Suez Canal. ' Eric Johnson