Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has launched a new service between Asia and the US West Coast to meet booming retail demand from its customers and improve reliability in the Trans-Pacific.
In a statement, the carrier said the “fast, direct connection” will help to ease industry-wide congestion and schedule issues that have caused chaos in the Trans-Pacific and the inland US supply chain.
“The new Sentosa service is a dedicated MSC line to link southeast Asia with the Pacific South West market and to catalyse trade between countries such as Thailand and Vietnam and the US West Coast,” the carrier said.
It went on to say that the new service should “enable a significantly improved transit time” for MSC customers shipping goods between Southeast Asia and California.
“The addition of the Sentosa service is intended to improve the distribution of cargo flow across the various existing services and port terminals either side of the Pacific, enhancing schedule reliability in this region.”
This service is expected to start in early April with the MSC Ornella and its rotation will be as follows:
Singapore – Tanjung Pelepas – Laem Chabang – Vung Tau – Long Beach – Shanghai – Ningbo – Xiamen – Singapore.
Increased demand for retail goods in the US since the Summer of 2020 has caused a substantial increase in volume on Trans-Pacific routes.
Consequently, the US’ major gateways to trade with China have suffered severe congestion which has caused knock-on effects across the supply chain, both in the US and in Southeast Asia.
