CMA CGM bolsters transatlantic service offerings

French ocean carrier will commence transatlantic operations on a new joint pendulum service with Hamburg Sud and UASC this month.    Ocean carrier CMA CGM is adding to and revising its transatlantic service offerings this month.
   The company’s “New Vespucci” service — a pendulum service that connects the Far East, the Americas and Europe via the Panama Canal — will begin operating in the transatlantic in May.
   According to schedule and capacity database Bluewater Reporting, the New Vespucci is operated with 15 ships, nine from CMA CGM, five from Hamburg Sud and one from UASC, with an average capacity of 4,366 TEUs.
   The rotation of the transatlantic portion of the loop is Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, New York, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Le Havre, Southampton, New York, Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah. The service then continues to Cartagena, Vostochniy, Nakhodka, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Busan, and back to Cartagena before returning to Savannah.
   CMA CGM also said it would add a call to Baltimore on its Liberty Solo/Liberty Bridge service, introduced in January. The service will now employ four ships instead of five with an average capacity of 1,795 TEUs. In addition, the carrier has dropped calls to Antwerp, Norfolk and Savannah, all of which are now covered by the New Vespucci, on the Liberty Solo string, leaving a port rotation of Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Le Havre, New York, Baltimore, Charleston, and Rotterdam.
   CMA CGM also operates two other dedicated transatlantic services. The carrier’s Victory Bridge loop, which operates with six vessels with an average capacity of 4,078 TEUs, connects North Europe with the East and Gulf Coast United States as well as Mexico, and its joint four vessel 2,866-TEU St. Laurent 1 service with Maersk Line connects North Europe with the East Coast of Canada.