TCC speeds up transpacific service

TCC speeds up transpacific service    The Containership Company is speeding up its service between Taicang and Long Beach, according to a report Monday by the maritime news service Alphaliner.
   TCC, which commenced operations in April with a five-ship point-to-point loop between the Chinese river port and Southern California, has evidently seen such demand that the service will be sped up by two day eastbound and four days westbound.
   The Great Dragon service is the only loop to call North America directly from Taicang, which lies upriver from Shanghai.
   Alphaliner said the service speed will increase to 19 knots from 15, with eastbound transit times cut from 15 to 13 days and westbound times cut from 18 to 14 days. As part of the change, the service will also operate with four, rather than five, ships, with all four ships being 3,000-TEU vessels.
   The carrier will phase out a 2,500-TEU ship that has been on the service. All the ships are chartered on long-term contracts.
   TCC didn’t immediately respond to an American Shipper request for confirmation of the changes.
   The service has been a boon for Taicang, China's busiest river container port. Volume in May swelled 52 percent to nearly 202,000 TEUs, according to Alphaliner. For the year, Taicang's volume has increased 43 percent to 796,000 TEUs. It is on pace to be the 11th-busiest container port in China this year.