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New service will link ports in Vietnam and China with the US East Coast via the Panama Canal
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The Vietnam call has been added to increase capacity in the rapidly growing market that has seen gains of 52% and 25% in the past two years
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The TP23 string will be a weekly service that includes eight Maersk vessels and two from ZIM
Maersk announced the launch in May 2021 of a new service linking ports in Vietnam and China with the US East Coast via the Panama Canal to raise capacity on the trans-Pacific trade.
The Danish container shipping liner said the TP23 string will support increased demands and address cargo surges on the Asia to US East Coast trade lane during the global pandemic.
The new service will replace the significant number of extra loaders and ad-hoc routing solutions deployed in past months.
It will be a weekly service that includes eight Maersk vessels and two from ZIM.
The service will include port calls in Vietnam and Yantian with a Panama Canal transit and direct connections to Savannah, Charleston and Newark in the US.
The Vietnam call has been added to provide more capacity to the rapidly growing market that has seen gains of 52% and 25% in the past two years, the carrier added.
The rotation is intended to be Vung Tau, Vietnam/Yantian, South China/Panama Canal /Savannah /Charleston/Newark. However due to congestion in Savannah, the rotation will initially and until further notice swap the US calls to go Charleston/Savannah/Newark.
The new service is expected to:
- Improve speed, reliability and coverage in the trans-Pacific
- Become integrated into US East Coast landside logistics offerings
- Improve transit times from Yantian to Savannah by three to four days and Yantian to Charleston by seven to eight days over existing services
Narin Phol, managing director of Maersk North America, said, “Importers are looking for more US East Coast gateways in their Asia/North America supply chains while exporters are looking for more equipment—especially in the Southeast US region. The TP23 service will enable us to address these needs while integrating our warehousing & distribution network.”
Photo from Maersk’s Facebook page
