APL is set to launch a weekly direct shipping service from Ho Chi Minh City to the US West Coast on 4 June.
The new route is in response to rapidly growing demand for container freight out of Vietnam. The country has so far been relying mainly on small feeder services for export.
APL’s service will link Vietnam to the main trans-Pacific routes, an import step for a country who’s main export market is North America, reported the Journal of Commerce.
“The launch of the service is recognition that Vietnam has not only established a strong market presence among the world’s leading shippers and manufacturers, but it is delivering on its commitment to modernise transportation infrastructure such as state-of-the-art port facilities capable of handling large deep-water container ships,” said APL’s president Eng Aik Meng.
“Customers are clamouring for direct service to Vietnam, but we haven’t been able to start one because of shallow water,” said William Rooney, managing director of North and South America for Hanjin Shipping.
“That should be fixed in the harbour at Ho Chi Minh City later this year,” he said.
Cargo throughput at Saigon Port in Ho Chi Minh City rose 43 per cent in the first four months of this year on the same period in 2008, said port officials.
Containerised traffic in Vietnam has been increasing by about 19 per cent annually over the last decade, according to an APL report from 2007.
The first ship scheduled for the new route is the 4,250 TEU APL Denver.
No comments yet