Big containerships arrive on both coasts

Both the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia and the Virginia Port Authority have hosted record-size container vessels at their terminals in recent days.    Both the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada and the Virginia Port Authority have seen record size containerships call their terminals in recent days.
   Global Container Terminals’ GCT Deltaport facility in Vancouver was called by Hapag-Lloyd’s 13,200-TEU Antwerpen Express on Friday, making it the largest containership to ever call Canada, GCT said in a statement.
    According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the ship is deployed as part of THE Alliance’s transpacific Pacific North 3 (PN3) service. The loop operates with six vessels with an average capacity of 10,886 TEUs and a full port rotation of Hong Kong, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Pusan, Vancouver, Seattle, Busan, and back to Hong Kong.
   On the U.S. East Coast, the 13,100-TEU COSCO Development arrived at the Virginia International Gateway (VIG) terminal in Portsmouth, Va., Monday morning. The ship, which is owned by Seaspan Corp. and chartered to COSCO, is deployed in the OCEAN Alliance’s South Atlantic Express (SAX) service. The SAX, which operates with 11 vessels with an average of 12,137 TEUs in capacity, has a rotation of Hong Kong, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Colon (PA), Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston, and Hong Kong, according to BlueWater Reporting.
   John F. Reinhart, chief executive officer and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority said last month that with the new ocean-carrier alliances becoming operational in April “we will be seeing more big ships, like the COSCO Development, moving considerable amounts of cargo”
   Last week, the Port of New York and New Jersey said that after June 30 larger ships would be able to begin calling terminals in New Jersey and on Staten Island because sufficient demolition of the lower roadway of the Bayonne Bridge had been completed to allow ships carrying up to 18,000 TEU to pass beneath the span.