MSC changes terminals in New York

MSC changes terminals in New York    Mediterranean Shipping Co. will move its operations in the Port of New York and New Jersey from Maher Terminal in Port Elizabeth, N.J., to the Port Newark Container Terminal (PNCT) owned by Ports America on Oct. 1.
   MSC, which last year moved about 360,000 containers through the port, will become PNCT’s largest customer, and bring it up to about 85 percent of its 800,000 container capacity. It also replaces volumes lost when CMA CGM, which is increasingly involved in an alliance with Maersk Line, moved business earlier this year from PNCT to the APM Terminal in Port Elizabeth.
   Ports America and MSC affiliate Terminal Investments Inc. recently won a deal to jointly develop a terminal in Oakland, Calif. That has sparked rumors that there might be some investment by MSC in PNCT, but both companies said this was not true; that MSC has only hired PNCT as its stevedore in Newark.
   Meanwhile, MSC will also start offering service between the Port of Philadelphia and North Europe next month. Alan Clifford, executive vice president of MSC, said the Philadelphia call is not expected to draw cargo away from the Port of New York and New Jersey, but to add incremental business by making MSC more competitive in competing for cargo in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the Delaware Valley. ' Chris Dupin