Atlanticargo ends Charleston call

Atlanticargo ends Charleston call    Grieg Star Shipping AS said its Atlanticargo subsidiary will cease its regular container calls in Charleston in July, but will continue to call Mobile, Ala., and Houston.
   Charleston was the carrier’s only East Coast port of call. In Europe Atlanticargo calls Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bremen and Tilbury.
   “The extraordinary drop in rates as well as volume since the fall of 2008, combined with the dismal prospects for a return to normalcy, has made this decision necessary,” the carrier said.
   Atlanticargo is not alone in seeing a sharp downturn in the transatlantic container trade. The European Linear Affairs Association estimated westbound transatlantic volumes in the first three months of 2009 at 628,600 TEUs, down 17 percent from the same period in 2008 and eastbound volumes at 583,600 TEUs, down 30 percent.
   Atlanticargo will continue the westbound and eastbound scheduled voyages to the U.S. Gulf, where calls in Mobile and Houston are already combined with Grieg Star Shipping’s conventional cargo operation.
   The Gothenberg, Sweden-based carrier has four ships that offer both door-to-door movements of containers cargo as well as breakbulk and project cargo.
   Atlanticargo is part of the Grieg Star group, a leading carrier of pulp and paper, lumber and other breakbulk and bulk commodities with a fleet of more than 40 ships.