MEDITERRANEAN SHIPPING ADDS SEPERATE MEDITERRANEAN/U.S. SERVICE

MEDITERRANEAN SHIPPING ADDS SEPERATE MEDITERRANEAN/U.S. SERVICE    From mid-May, Mediterranean Shipping Co. is adding a dedicated weekly Mediterranean/North Atlantic service. At the same time, the Swiss carrier is reshuffling ports and capacity on its two existing transatlantic services.
   MSC cited “strike disruption in Spanish ports and labor shortages in the port of Le Havre” as the reasons behind the move.
   The new “Mediterranean Ports North Atlantic” service will operate with five ships of 1,200 TEUs and call at Valencia; Naples; La Spezia; Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.; Baltimore, Md.; Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga. and Freeport, Bahamas.
   The existing “North Europe Ports North Atlantic” service will no longer serve the Mediterranean ports of Valencia, Naples and La Spezia, but will resume calls at Bremerhaven.
   Splitting the former U.S./north Europe/Mediterranean service into separate north European and Mediterranean loops will mean the addition of about three ships in the transatlantic trade by MSC.
   To minimize any capacity increase, MSC said that it is replacing its two largest ships on the “South Atlantic” service with smaller vessels taken out of the “North Atlantic” service. It is expected that the “North Atlantic” loop will then operate with four ships instead of six when it also covered Mediterranean ports.
   According to ComPairData, the global liner shipping database, the introduction of the separate new service will see an estimated increase of about 16,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity to the transatlantic market.
   The additional capacity follows reports that westbound shippers and forwarders are struggling to get sufficient capacity on U.S.-bound transatlantic ships.