U.S. Lines adding calls in Oakland

U.S. Lines adding calls in Oakland Santa Ana, Calif.-based U.S. Lines will from mid-April add calls at the Port of Oakland on its weekly U.S. West Coast/Australasia/Far East ANZL service.
   USL started the service last July before upgrading it to a fixed-day weekly frequency in October when all eight ships averaging about 1,240 TEUs were phased in.
   The vessel “USL Kea” will make the first call from Oakland on April 24. Vessels will depart Oakland every Tuesday, proceeding to Los Angeles for a Friday departure, which USL said would please exporters seeking later cutoffs.
   “Oakland was the natural next step for USL’s expansion,” said Ed Aldridge, USL’s president and chief executive officer. “Additionally, we are presently evaluating other opportunities to broaden our scope, while simultaneously delivering the most consistent on-time performance in the Australia/New Zealand trade.”
   The ANZL service will have a revised port rotation of Oakland, Los Angeles, Tauranga, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Shekou, Hong Kong and back to California.
   ANL Container Line, the Australian subsidiary of France’s CMA CGM, currently takes slots on the service but is about to deliver two ships into the service in the coming months.