The Hindu Business Line : APL unveils ‘Suez Express’ connecting India, US East Coast

Via Suez Canal
The service offers 21 days transit time to New York from Singapore and 18 days from Colombo.
It will be helpful to customers who are increasingly diversifying their supply chains throughout Asia.
The service offers alternative to the Panama Canal.

Our Bureau

Kolkata, Aug. 23 APL, the container shipping subsidiary of Neptune Orient Line, has launched “Suez Express”, the weekly service connecting South Asia, including the Indian sub-continent, with the US east coast ports via the Suez Canal.

The Suez Express deploys eight vessels of the capacity ranging from 4,000-4,500 TEUs each – APL provides the five vessels while its New World Alliance partners, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Mitsui OSK Line the three others.

The west bound port rotation is: Port Klang-Singapore- Colombo- New York- Charleston-Savannah- Norfolk and east bound rotation is: New York- Charleston-Savannah- Norfolk- Jebel Ali-Port Klang- Singapore and APL’s feeder services from markets such as South and East India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam will connect the mainline services.

The service offers 21 days transit time to New York from Singapore and 18 days from Colombo. From Singapore, the transit time to Charleston and Savannah is 24 and 25 days, respectively, according to shipping sources.

The Suez Express, the sources point out, will be helpful to customers who are increasingly diversifying their supply chains throughout Asia, and using multiple gateways to flow freight into the US market.

The service, it is indicated, offers a complementary alternative to the Panama Canal which is becoming increasingly congested and will remain so for the next decade until its expansion is completed.

The US west coast ports remain challenged by volumes and inadequate infrastructure but Panama remains an integral part of APL’s service and the shipping line runs a service between Asia and US east coast ports via Panama Canal.