APL, MOL starts Balboa/West Coast South America feeder

APL, MOL starts Balboa/West Coast South America feeder    APL and MOL have started a joint weekly service between Balboa, Panama, and ports in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile.
   The APL vessel “Turquoise” employed in the new “Panama Andean Express/Americas Coast West” service made its first call in Balboa.
   The feeder service connects in Balboa with the “New York Express” transpacific service of APL and MOL.
   Hutchison Port Holdings-owned Panama Ports Co., which operates the container port of Balboa, said the APL ship called at the new Panamax pier 17, which is part of its $200-million “phase 3” expansion.
   Balboa, located at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal, hopes to become a big transshipment hub for east/west container services and South American services, and has already attracted Maersk Sealand as a transshipment user.
   “We expect that this trend will continue with other shipping lines operating in the West Coast of South America market,” Panama Ports Co. said in a statement.
   Other carriers, including Evergreen, transship West Coast of South America cargoes via Caribbean ports such as Cristobal.