Hamburg Süd Service improvements in the Mediterranean, Gulf and Caribbean

Hamburg, February 2010. Responding to changing market conditions, Hamburg Süd has decided to replace its current Med-Caribbean service through a slotcharter agreement with Hapag-Lloyd’s MGX service. This allows an improvement of the frequency while maintaining the present coverage of ports in the Mediterranean, the Gulf Coast of Mexico and Atlantic / Gulf Coast of the United States with very competitive transit times.

The new integrated Mediterranean Mexican Gulf Express will be operated with six ships (each with a container capacity of 3,200 TEU) and will offer the following port rotation: Cagliari – Livorno – Genoa – Barcelona – Valencia – Port Everglades – Veracruz – Altamira – Houston – New Orleans – Cagliari. Subject to Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) filing approval, the first sailing of the MMGX service will be the Barcelona Express, sailing Livorno on March 2nd.

In a related service enhancement, Hamburg Süd will change its Intra-Caribbean network viz. effective February 18th, the Intra Caribbean Feeder service (ITFS) will be upgraded to two vessels calling on a weekly fixed-day basis at Cartagena – Puerto Limon – Santo Tomas de Castilla – Kingston – Rio Haina – Cartagena.

Simultaneously, Hamburg Süd will open a new weekly service connecting the hub in Cartagena with Barranquilla (Colombia) and San Juan (Puerto Rico). The service will have its first sailing in early March. The changes will allow for a more complete and comprehensive coverage of the Caribbean Basin, connecting Hamburg Süd’s worldwide network of services through the Cartagena hub.<Korea Shipping Gazette>