AMPAC carriers to drop U.S., Canada calls
Compania Chilena de Navegacion Interoceanica (CCNI), Hamburg Sud and Maruba will drop calls in Canada and the United States from their joint weekly Asia/North America/Central America/West Coast South America AMPAC loop, from the start of next year.
At present AMPAC uses 11 ships of about 2,000 TEUs calling at Hong Kong; Shanghai; Busan; Vancouver, British Columbia; Long Beach, Calif.; Manzanillo, Mexico; Puerto Quetzal; Buenaventura; Callao; Antofagasta; San Antonio; Lirquen; Long Beach; Oakland, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; Vancouver; Keelung and back to Hong Kong. Not every port call is served on a weekly basis.
From January, the service will split into two weekly loops with a total of 18 1,850-TEU to 3,100-TEU ships sailing between Asia, Mexico and the West Coast of South America.
The rotation of the first loop will be: Yokohama, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Hong Kong, Manzanillo, Guayaquil, Paita (fortnightly), Callao, Iquique, Mejillones (fortnightly), Valparaiso, Lirquen, Manzanillo and Yokohama.
The second loop will call: Keelung, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Pusan, Manzanillo, Buenaventura, Callao, Mejillones, San Antonio and Keelung.
The carriers will maintain a new weekly California Express service calling Manzanillo, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Vancouver, Long Beach, Ensenada and back to Manzanillo. Manzanillo will serve as a transshipment hub to move cargo to and from the North American West Coast ports to Central and South America.