The port of Virginia in the United States has increased direct connections to major Asian hubs, with the last example being the recent arrival of the container ship Hakuna Matata at Norfolk International Terminals.
The arrival of the ship marked the beginning of visits to the US East Coast for Sea Lead, a container shipping company based in Singapore.
Sea Lead recently announced the start of AEC service that will make a direct call to the East Coast via the Panama Canal with the port of Virginia being the first port call.
“It is a vote of confidence that Virginia is the first stop on this new service, which is operated by an experienced ocean carrier that doesn’t serve the US East Coast,” said Stephen A. Edwards, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority.
The service that runs every month will employ vessels with an average capacity of 6,500 TEU.
In July, the service will increase to twice a month. The port call rotation is: Nansha, Ningbo, Qindao, Pusan, (Panama Canal transit) The Port of Virginia, New York / New Jersey, South Carolina, Florida and back to Nansha via the Suez Canal.
According to Edwards, this is a major opportunity for cargo owners and logistics companies using the port of Virginia to Nansha, one of the fastest growing ports in southern China.
“Increasing the number of connections to new and growing ports and markets is an important selling point for us,” Edwards said.
“Earlier this month we announced another brand-new vessel service that links Virginia with some very important Asian markets.
“When you couple these announcements with the fact that we are investing US$1.3 billion to create more rail capacity, modernise and renovate two of our berths and convert them to an RMG (rail-mounted gantry crane) operation and widen and deepen dredge our channels it’s hard to deny the long-term advantages the Port of Virginia presents,” he concluded.
