Hamburg Süd rejigs Med-Carribean services

Responding to changing market conditions, Hamburg Süd has replaced its current Med-Caribbean service through a slot charter agreement with Hapag-Lloyd’s MGX service. This allows an improvement of the frequency while maintaining the present coverage of ports in the Mediterranean, the Gulf Coast of Mexico and Atlantic/Gulf Coast of the United States with very competitive transit times.

The new integrated Mediterranean Mexican Gulf Express will be operated with six ships (each with a container capacity of 3,200 TEUs) and will offer the following port rotation: Cagliari, Livorno, Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia, Port Everglades, Veracruz, Altamira, Houston, New Orleans, Cagliari.

The first sailing of the MMGX service will be the Barcelona Express, leaving Livorno on March 2.

Hamburg Süd has also changed its Intra-Caribbean network from February 18. The Intra Caribbean Feeder service (ITFS) has been upgraded to two vessels calling on a weekly fixed-day basis at Cartagena, Puerto Limon, Santo Tomas de Castilla, Kingston, Rio Haina and Cartagena.

Hamburg Süd will also open a new weekly service connecting the hub in Cartagena with Barranquilla (Colombia) and San Juan (Puerto Rico). The service will have its first sailing in early March. The changes will allow for a more complete and comprehensive coverage of the Caribbean Basin, connecting Hamburg Süd’s worldwide network of services through the Cartagena hub.

Source: Cargo News ASia