HANJIN SHIPPING RETURNS TO PORTLAND
Hanjin Shipping, the Korean carrier that pulled out of the port of Portland last year, said it would resume direct vessel calls at the Oregon port in August.
Hanjin ended its direct-call transpacific service last December, and took slots on a service operated by “K” Line instead, thereby dealing a blow to the Pacific Northwest port. Few transpacific container services call direct at the port of Portland.
Hanjin Shipping and its subsidiary company Senator Lines have announced plans to increase their existing operations in Portland. Their China America Express weekly service, which currently calls only at Pacific Southwest ports in the United States, will add a direct Portland call on Aug. 1.
The port of Portland said that the change would increase the port’s containership capacity by about one third, benefiting regional importers, exporters and service providers with transportation cost savings estimated to total about $10 million per year.
The port attributed Hanjin’s change to signs of improving economic conditions since last September and “demonstrated strong market demand” in Portland by shippers, brokers and freight forwarders.
“Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, a groundswell of support by the local business and political community helped tipped the balance in Portland’s favor,” said Jeff McEwen, Hanjin’s Portland regional manager.
Port of Portland executive director Bill Wyatt said that Hanjin’s new direct-call service will provide area importers and exporters with ship capacity for at least 500 more containers a week.
“Northwest firms, from those that import groceries, footwear and electronics, to those that export ag products, building materials and manufactured goods, will save approximately $382 per container with Hanjin’s very welcome decision,” he said. His estimate of the saving is based on the cost that local businesses and their service providers would otherwise bear to move goods through more distant ports, like Seattle, Tacoma or Oakland.
Partly as a test of market demand, in February and March, Hanjin sent a ship a week for five weeks to Portland, each of which experienced “solid load performance,” according to McEwen.
He said that Hanjin saw container logistics opportunities and cost savings by sending a China America Express ship north each week to load Portland’s exports. The port of Portland, unlike southern Californian ports, is mainly export-orientated.
Hanjin will also add a direct call at Ningbo, China, to the China America Express service. The revised vessel rotation for the China America Express service will be: Long Beach, Oakland, Portland, Tokyo, Pusan, Ningbo, Shanghai, Kwangyang (South Korea), Pusan, Long Beach, Oakland, Portland. The service uses five containerships of about 4,000 TEU capacity.