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APL launches direct Vietnam-US shipping
Global container shipping leader APL launched its first weekly direct container shipping service between Vietnam and the US Wednesday.
The company held the inaugural ceremony at the brand new Saigon Port-PSA deepwater container terminal located on Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s Cai Mep River.
The new service will cut two days off the transit time between Vietnam and the west coast of the US, taking just 15 days to reach Seattle and 16 days to reach Los Angeles.
In another first for Vietnam, the company said it had loaded 53-foot containers onto the service vessel, the APL Denver, including products shipped by global sportswear maker Nike, for its first direct service from Vietnam to Seattle today.
The 53-footers, which have been used only in China and Vietnam, have about 60 percent more capacity than standard 40-foot containers.
Speaking at the press briefing, APL’s Senior Vice President for Pan American Trade, Bob Sappio, said, “Vietnam is among a select few countries that expects to record export growth in 2009. The PS1 service will help Vietnam grow as a vibrant manufacturing and export centre with an increasingly vital role to play in global trade.”
APL already makes weekly calls covering the entire country from Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Hai Phong.
These services connect via feeder ships to strategic hubs and then into APL’s global network, which calls at all major locations within Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US.
APL is a unit of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), a global shipping, logistics and marine terminals company.
It became the first Singapore-based transportation and logistics firm to establish its wholly owned operations in Vietnam in 2007.
NOL is also the main investor in the Vietnam International Container Terminal (VICT) in HCMC, which became the country’s first purpose-built container handling facility when it opened in 1998.
Vinh Bao
thanhnien
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