SM Line increases capacity on North American West Coast

SM Gwangyang Terminal (Photo: SM Line)

The Port of Gwangyang - Korea's second largest container port - is predicting an increase in export volumes to the North American West Coast after SM Line decided to deploy larger vessels on the Pacific Northwest Service (PNS).

Yeosu-Gwangyang Port Authority (YGPA) said that their president, Park Sung Hyun, actively promoted Gwangyang Port for SM Line in the first half of the year and both sides have prepared measures to improving import and export logistics services for the North American route, working with SM Line's branch in Canada.

Accordingly, at the end of July, SM Line decided to deploy 6 6,500 TEU container-ships on the PNS service, calling at the ports of Gwangyang, Yantian, Shanghai, Ningbo, Busan, Prince Rupert, Vancouver, Seattle and Portland. Previously, SM Line deployed 6 ships of 4,300 TEU type to PNS.

A spokesperson for SM Line told Container News that deploying larger vessels was an internal decision for the company.

“Our initial plan for the vessel deployed to PNS, including Gwangyang terminal, was 4,300 TEU vessels unlike the currently deployed 6,500 TEU vessels. The bottom line is that Gwangyang terminal now has bigger than expected vessels, due to our changed plan.”

Through the upgraded PNS service, Gwangyang Port is expected to handle 70,000 TEUs of cargo exported to North America each year. Compared to the approximately 30,000 TEUs handled through the PNS service prior to the upgrade, this increases export volumes by 135%.

A YGPA official said, "We are pleased to be able to achieve the achievement of upsizing North American services through marketing to national shipping lines. In the second half of the year, we plan to further expand marketing to domestic and international shipping alliances."

See more:

• HMM, SM Line and Pan Ocean launch first service under K-Alliance
• 2M Alliance ends slot swap agreement with SM Line on transpacific service

Source: Phaata.com (According to ContainerNews)

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