U.S. GULF/BRAZIL CARRIERS RESTRUCTURE SERVICE

U.S. GULF/BRAZIL CARRIERS RESTRUCTURE SERVICE    Alianca, Columbus Line and Crowley American Transport, three shipping subsidiaries of the Hamburg Sud group, and their joint service partner P&O Nedlloyd, are restructuring their direct U.S. Gulf/Mexico/East Coast South America container service,
   Service frequency will be improved from about every eight days to weekly, while direct calls at Buenos Aires will be replaced by a transshipment service via Brazil.
   “The change shortens the (service’s) round-trip voyage time, allowing initiation of fixed-day weekly services to all ports,” a spokesman for Hamburg Sud said.
   The rotation of the revised service will be Houston, Altamira, Veracruz, Manzanillo (Panama), Cartagena, Port of Spain (on alternate voyages), Santos, Rio Grande, Itajai, Paranagua (on alternate voyages), Santos, Rio de Janeiro (on alternate voyages), Salvador (on alternate voyages), Pecem (on alternate voyages), Port of Spain, Cartagena, Manzanillo, Kingston and Houston.
   Exports from Brazil have continued to be strong, Hamburg Sud reported. However, the South American trades have been hit by a sharp fall in southbound traffic and by the collapse of the Argentine economy.