Posts Tagged “SeaLand”
PORT HUENEME, CA. — Over 100,000 tons of additional fresh fruits and vegetables should be arriving at the Port of Hueneme annually as SeaLand has designated the facility as a new port call.
SeaLand, the Intra-Americas regional ocean carrier for the Maersk Group, based in Miramar, FL, launched a new service at the port in September.
Although the ocean carrier will transport a wide range of cargo, fresh fruit will make up the majority of its payload coming to the Port of Hueneme, said Tim Child, SeaLand’s chief operations officer.
Bananas, avocados, pineapples, limes, dried fruit and nuts are some of the items the carrier will bring in as part of the company’s West Coast Central America (WCCA) service, which will offer weekly runs between Southern California, Mexico, Central America and the west coast of South America.
As for exports, SeaLand will be handling apples, table grapes and stone fruit on a seasonal basis.
Shipping is the most fuel-efficient method of transporting goods and provides an alternative for produce that typically is trucked from Mexico, Child said.
It also could improve distribution of goods coming to or from California’s Central Valley, he said.
Steve Barnard, president and CEO of Mission Produce Inc., an Oxnard-based avocado grower-shipper, was on hand for the welcoming event.
“This new service into Oxnard is going to be be huge, at least for the local community and Mission in particular,” he said. “We bring in several thousand loads a year from Mexico and South America,” he said.
Until now, the company’s product from Mexico has been delivered by truck.
“This is going to save time and energy,” he said. “The carbon footprint is going to be significantly reduced.”
The Port of Hueneme, known as “the port that farmers built,” is surrounded by the Oxnard growing area, specializes in refrigerated cargo and is well-suited to the volume of fresh fruit bound for the U.S. Southwest from Latin America, said Ariel Frias, SeaLand’s head of marketing.
It’s about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles and will serve as “an alternative gateway” to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The port offers an efficient infrastructure for fresh produce that includes faster inspections and nearby cold storage facilities, he said.
The port already handles 650,600 tons of bananas and 113,400 tons of other fruit annually.
Nearly two dozen members of Mexico’s produce industry were recently in Philadelphia to observe firsthand what this port has to offer in handling and distributing Mexican cargo arriving by ocean.
The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority hosted the Mexican Inbound Trade Mission. Also in attendance were government representatives and regional industry members who have been active in the Ship Philly First effort to create an ocean link between the east coast of Mexico and Philadelphia, which is a seaport specializing in the fresh and vegetable produce trade.
SeaLand, a refrigerated container steamship company stepped up to link Mexico and Philadelphia through its new SL Atlantico Northbound weekly service, which began in late January. While there is certainly room for growth, all indications are that the route has a strong start.
Fresh Mexican produce is the primary target for the northbound service, but frozen meats and chilled foods are other key products that suit Atlantico Northbound. Dry goods, such as auto parts and many other commodities have access to the service. In broad numbers, Pennsylvania and Mexico have two-way trade with one another with a total value of $8 billion.
This new ocean freight option gives Mexican exporters a less-expensive alternative for reaching the populous eastern United States and Canada. Forty percent of the U.S. population is within a one-day truck delivery of the Port of Philadelphia.
The Mexican produce exporters located south and east of Mexico City have been tagged as having the most to gain through this ocean freight vs. trucking through Nogales. AZ or the state of Texas.
SeaLand sails from Veracruz on Tuesdays to make a stop in Altamira, which is another port further north on the Gulf of Mexico coast in the state of Veracruz. The ship then departs for Philadelphia and arrives the following Wednesday, six days later.
Increased loading opportunities for imported produce at Philadelphia are becoming available with a new SeaLand refrigerated sea trade route now operational between the east coast of Mexico and Philadelphia.
Produce haulers should benefit as more fresh produce companies in the Northeast become direct distributors of fresh Mexican fruits and vegetables. The new trade route has been in the works for the past two years spearheaded by Ship Philly First and related Philadelphia trade groups. The first avocados and limes arrived on a SeaLand ship February 4th from Mexico. Ramped up operators are now occurring.
When SeaLand formally announced the service on December. 17th, it indicated the SeaLand Atlantico refrigerated containership route would debark on Tuesdays from the Port of Veracruz. It will then take two days to arrive in Port Altamira, a Mexican port to the north of Veracruz. The ship will leave on Thursdays — the same day as arrival — and then arrive at Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal on the following Wednesday.
The six-day transit time from Mexico to Philadelphia means trucks will be delivering Mexican produce up to 40 percent of the U.S. population within a day’s drive.
SeaLand has indicated that 100 containers shipped aboard SeaLand Atlantico would save 31,487 gallons of fuel versus what trucks would burn on the same delivery. 600 containers will save 188,821 gallons of fuel.
Mangos are a very important commodity for this service. Truck transportation will continue to be the primary way Mexican produce is hauled with product grown within a certain distance of Nogales, San Diego or South Texas. However, Mexican growers to the south and east can gain a great deal by looking toward the ocean link. Still, trucks will be required, once the boats arrive at port, and boats certainly can’t handle nearly all of the Mexican volume, not matter where it originates.
Holt Logistics Corp., of Gloucester City, NJ has landed separate business agreementsthat has attacted two additional weekly shipments from South America and Central America to Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.
The “South American Express” service started June 3rd, operated by SeaLand, the Denmark-based Maersk Group’s intra-Americas regional ocean carrier, plans to begin calling on the terminal.
The service previously terminated in Norfolk, Va., and the change expands SeaLand’s direct connections from Central America into the northeast and provides shippers with better access to U.S. consumers and a user-friendly docking environment for refrigerated peribshable goods, including tropical fruits and other commodities, according to a news release.
Additionally, a joint vessel sharing agreement between SeaLand and American President Lines is designed to create a new “North American Express” service that should attract an additional ship to the terminal each week.
The “North Atlantic Express” service is pending regulatory approval but is scheduled to commence in late June.
The service rotation plans to cycle between the Manzanillo International Terminal in Panama, Cartagena, Columbia, south Florida, Savannah, Ga., Philadelphia and New York.
It boosts SeaLand’s network and offers additional direct connections and service between the West Coast of South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast. Business at the Port of Philadelphia continues to grow, and the addition of two weekly service calls from SeaLand/APL will increase efficiency, shorten overall transit times and provide greater opportunities to expand business in both perishable and non-perishable commerce between North and South America.