Friday, April 22, 2011

Prince Rupert to Double Weekly Ship Calls

New services being added by ocean carriers COSCO and Hanjin in May will boost weekly calls at the Canadian West Coast port of Prince Rupert by 50 percent.

COSCO and Hanjin have announced they will add additional weekly call each to the port, raising the number of weekly calls at Prince Rupert from two to four. The port is currently being served by the CKYH Alliance (COSCON, K-Line, Yang Ming, and Hanjin) mainly under the COSCON banner.

Starting in early May, COSCO will replace the Port of Oakland on its five vessel transpacific South China Express service (SEA) with the Prince Rupert port as the last call on the West Coast.

Also starting in early May, Hanjin will add Prince Rupert to its transpacific Pacific Northwest North Express service (PNN), with Prince Rupert being the first West Coast call inbound from Asia.

Opened in late 2007, the port's single container terminal handled about 340,000 TEUs last year with two weekly ship calls and has an estimated maximum capacity of about 500,000 TEUs per year. The Canadian National Railway offers an express 90-hour double-stacked intermodal service between the Prince Rupert terminal and Chicago.