Crowley reshuffles Central American services

Crowley reshuffles Central American services    Crowley Liner Services is changing several of its liner services linking the United States and the northern and southern ports of Central America.
   The carrier will add a feeder service between Puerto Limon, Costa Rica and Rama, Nicaragua, as part of the company’s southern zone service in Central America.
      It will also introduce a roll-on/roll-off service linking the United States and the ports of Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala.
   At the same time, Crowley will end its ro/ro service between South Florida and the Dominican Republic.
   On Dec. 7, Crowley will use the 176-TEU vessel “Christopher Dean” to transport cargo directly from Port Everglades, Fla., to Rama. Following this initial sailing, the vessel will shuttle cargo weekly between Rama and the hub of Puerto Limon. Cargo arriving from Rama will be transferred to a Crowley linehaul vessel, which will sail to Port Everglades. The addition of Rama to the southern zone service brings to seven the number of weekly Crowley U.S./Central America sailings.
   In mid-December, the company will operate the new Central America southern zone service “Butterfly Express” with three ro/ro ships. They will have a rotation of Port Everglades, Puerto Limon, Manzanillo, Panama, Puerto Limon, Santo Tomas, Guatemala, Port Everglades, Puerto Limon and Port Everglades. This change in rotation will add approximately 80 additional cargo spaces into the service per week,
Crowley said.
   Crowley will end its ro/ro service between South Florida and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic Dec. 8. The company said it will continue to call the Dominican Republic and Haiti with its lift-on/lift-off container service, calling at Port Everglades, Rio Haina, Port-Au-Prince and Port Everglades again.