LYKES LINES FINALIZES ASIA/VANCOUVER/ALASKA SERVICE

LYKES LINES FINALIZES ASIA/VANCOUVER/ALASKA SERVICE    The CP Ships group has finalized details of a new Asia/Canada weekly container service it announced at the end of January.
   CP Ships-owned carrier Lykes Lines will operate the “Asia Canada Sprint,” which will start from Anchorage on March 26.
   The service, which will operate with five 2,100-TEU ships, will add some 110,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity before the transpacific peak season starts. Lykes said each vessel will have up to 430 reefer plugs, and the service will serve fish exporters in Alaska.
   The service will have a rotation of Vancouver, Anchorage, Tokyo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Pusan, Vancouver. It will connect with rail links to Toronto, Montreal and eastern Canada, as well as the U.S. Midwest.
   This will be the only transpacific container service calling direct at the port of Anchorage, according to ComPairData, the global liner-shipping database.
   Another CP Ships carrier may also participate in the transpacific container service.
   CP Ships, a relatively small carrier group in the transpacific trade, will now operate three weekly services between Asia and the Americas. It already has an Asia-West Coast Americas service and a Pacific Sprint service. The latter service serves China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, California and Mexico.