Maersk North America has announced the launch of a new service linking ports in Vietnam and China with the United States East Coast via the Panama Canal.
“Importers are looking for more U.S. East Coast gateways in their Asia/North America supply chains, while exporters are looking for more equipment — especially in the Southeast U.S. region. The TP23 service will enable us to address these needs while integrating our warehousing and distribution network,” Narin Phol, managing director of Maersk North America, said in a statement.
A total of ten vessels, eight from Maersk and two from ZIM, will be used for the TP23 string, with a rotation of Vung Tau, Yantian, Savannah, Charleston, Newark, and back to Asia. The new service is expected to begin sometime in May.
Maersk noted that “due to congestion in Savannah, the rotation will initially and until further notice swap the U.S. calls to go Charleston, Savannah [and then] Newark.”
Maersk said the TP23 service is just the latest shift it has made over the last year “to stay agile for customers.” That included deploying 48 percent more capacity in the trans-Pacific trade from July to November 2020 compared to the same period the year prior, it said.
“The evolution of the TP23 service reflects Maersk’s 2020 approach to serve the trans-Pacific to U.S. East Coast cargo surges via additional capacity from service upgrades, extra loaders and loadings on the Asia-Europe network for transshipment onto extra loader shuttles across the trans-Atlantic. The TP23 will now become a structured, stable, weekly service in 2021 with greater reliability,” Maersk said.
According to the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), container exchanges at the Port of Savannah are expected to average 2,000 moves per vessel with the TP23 service.
“This new offering from Maersk replaces the extra loader vessels we have been handling with a regular service,” said Griff Lynch, GPA Executive Director. “This will provide greater reliability over the ad hoc sailings previously employed to accommodate record container volumes.”
Maersk said it is not ending any service as a consequence of launching the TP23. The TP23 will produce one additional call in Newark and Savannah and one fewer call in Charleston, as it will be removed from the TP17 and TP16 services.