Sea Star plans supplemental service to Puerto Rico

Barge service will provide added capacity for shippers as Horizon Lines leaves trade.    Sea Star Line said it plans to add a weekly container barge service between Jacksonville, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, early next year to complement its current twice-weekly service between the two cities.
   The company will use two barges to offer an additional capacity of 800 FEUs of capacity per week.
   The service fill a need for shippers in the wake of the decision by Horizon Lines to pull out of the Puerto Rico trade at the end of this year, according to sources.
   “Sea Star Line is committed to meeting the needs of Puerto Rico. We know that people depend on the weekly shipments that supply food, medicine and other commodities,” noted Tim Nolan, president of Sea Star Line. “We want to ensure that changes happening in the market do not negatively affect daily life in Puerto Rico and are exploring the best options for consistent, reliable service in 2015.”
   He said the additional capacity will come from chartered barges from a company not currently operating in the trade.
   Sea Star, which is part of TOTE, has two new ships for the Puerto Rico trade under construction at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. shipyard in San Diego. The first of those ships is scheduled to enter service next fall.
   The company said it will provide additional details on the service in coming weeks.