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Second new Atlantic container service strengthens Liverpool-Shanghai ties

For Immediate Release - 7 February, 2006

Liverpool is to be the UK port of call for a new trans-Atlantic container service to be launched by China Shipping Container Lines and CMA CGM, two of the world's top container shipping operators.

The decision to make Liverpool the weekly service's last call outbound from Northern Europe consolidates the port's position as Britain's major gateway for container trade with North America and forges an important new commercial link between the twinned cities of Liverpool and Shanghai.

The new service calling at ports down the Eastern Seaboard of the United States as far south as Charleston, is the second to be secured by the Port of Liverpool since the start of 2006. Mediterranean Shipping Company has announced a new weekly service to Canada to be launched on 27th February in co-operation with Maersk Line.

The China Shipping/CMA CGM service will start in mid-March utilising four 2,500/2,700 teu vessels to maintain a port rotation of Le Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Liverpool, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Le Havre. The two lines will each provide two of the ships.

Frank Robotham, Director of Marketing for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company - part of Peel Ports Group - said the service represented three key areas of significance to Liverpool.

"It builds upon Liverpool's position as the UK's major gateway for container trade with North America," he explained. "It strengthens ties between the twinned cities by forging an important relationship with one of the world's leading container shipping lines which has its head office in Shanghai, and it is the first deepsea mainline service to be offered out of Liverpool by CMA CGM - ranked third among the world's container shipping lines - which already operates a string of shortsea and feeder services from the port."

Liverpool handles more container trade with the United States and Canada than any other UK port and is the major British port for freight crossing the Irish Sea.

Mr Robotham said the new trans-Atlantic service would provide shippers in both the UK and Ireland with a new link into the South Eastern Seaboard of the United States, a market previously only served by shipping lines operating out of UK south coast ports.

"By nominating Liverpool as the last port out of Europe, the new service is providing a very fast and regular transit for trade moving in significant volumes between the UK and Ireland into the Charleston region of the US," he added. "We are delighted that China Shipping and CMA CGM have recognised the commercial advantages Liverpool offers to trade with North America."

The new service will be the fifth operated out of the Seaforth Container Terminal by the CMA CGM group, which has its UK head office in Liverpool. The group's other container services out of the port are the weekly deepsea feeder link with its North European hub at Le Havre and three weekly services to the Iberian Peninsula under the MACANDREWS flag.

The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company has applied for a Harbour Revision Order to enable the development of an £80 million container terminal on the River Mersey. The scheme is being undertaken in anticipation of the introduction of post Panamax container ships on the North Atlantic and further expansion of Liverpool's total container trade which is now at record levels of more than 600,000 teus a year.

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