Liner Shipping Service: North Carolina, Oakland

North Carolina Ports, ZIM Partner in Asian Trade

ZIM Integrated Shipping Ltd. is adding the Port of Wilmington to its Z7S all-water Asia-U.S. East Coast service rotation. This weekly service will begin calling the North Carolina port in June and provide access to major markets in South China, Southeast Asia and India Subcontinent.

The Z7S service is the first container service to call Wilmington via the Suez Canal. Its rotation includes direct access to Da Chan Bay (China), Yantian (China), Cai Mep (Vietnam), Port Kelang (Malaysia) and Colombo (Sri Lanka). All but Yantian are new ports of call for North Carolina Ports. ZIM operates the service with 11 vessels with an average capacity of 5,000 TEUs.

"This ZIM service will support legacy apparel, furniture and hardware industries throughout the Carolinas," said State Ports Authority Director Paul J. Cozza. "It’s an incredibly unique offering which shows our commitment to both reliable and flexible shipping solutions for our customers."

Oakland Braces for Ocean Carrier Alliance Changes: ‘We’re Confident’

Port of Oakland is expecting little disruption from upcoming changes to container shipping alliances. Eleven of the world’s largest container shipping lines are coming together in three new alliances. The carriers are changing partners after bankruptcy, acquisitions and consolidation roiled container shipping in 2016. Alliances allow participating carriers to share ships and port calls to reduce expense while expanding service.

The port anticipates cargo volume to hold steady once new alliances begin operation April, with fewer but larger ships visiting Oakland weekly.

"We’ve spoken to the shipping lines, we’ve spoken to our marine terminal operators and we understand their schedules," said John Driscoll, the port’s maritime director. "We’re confident that Oakland will be able to accommodate the newly formed alliances efficiently."

Oakland port officials see no difficulty in working with the new alliances. Most of the port’s vessel calls are concentrated in just three marine terminals. That means cargo relocation should be minimal. The port expects to handle 29 weekly and two fortnightly vessel calls in the new alliance structure.

In sum, the port is anticipating three "key outcomes":

•    No loss of cargo in Oakland, even though weekly vessel calls will decrease from 32 to 29

•    More direct vessel calls between Southeast Asia and Oakland, including a direct call to the Indian Subcontinent

•    Continued strong Oakland-to-Japan and Oakland-to-Korea service for refrigerated exports

Oakland will receive direct calls from 13 different Chinese ports. It will also receive six weekly calls from Taiwan and four from Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Seven weekly services from Oakland will go to ports in Japan.

The port said it could take two-to-three months for all alliance changes to take hold. The process includes slotting vessels into new service rotations. In some cases, older ships will be replaced with newer, larger ones.