Sweden’s Port of Gothenburg has acquired a new deep-sea service to Japan through the newly formed 2M Alliance between the two largest ocean container carriers, Swiss Mediteranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Danish Maersk Line.
The first vessel is already underway from Kobe and will call at the Port of Gothenburg’s APM Terminals on February 23.
Japan is Sweden’s second largest trading partner in the Far East, after China, and a major importer of Swedish forest products. Exports will comprise mainly sawn wood products, paper, steel and industrial components. Imports will comprise consumer goods, such as clothes, electronics and Asian food.
The transit time from Sweden to Kobe will be 41 days. The vessels in the service will call at Gothenburg’s container terminal every Tuesday.
The new service includes several ports that could previously not be reached by container vessels from Sweden, such as Kobe and Yokohama in Japan.
Maersk Line have up until now had two deep sea services from the Port of Gothenburg, but is now consolidating the goods to go through the newly established service.
At the same time, Maersk Line has launched three additional feeder services between the Port of Gothenburg and other European ports.
“A deep sea service between Gothenburg and Japan has been requested by our customers for a long time and we are very pleased to finally have this in our offer. To meet the demand on the Swedish market we will also add three additional feeder services from the Port of Gothenburg,” said Susanne Jacobsson, Chief Executive of Maersk Line Scandinavia.
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