Taipei-based Yang Ming Marine Transport has established a new centre in Panama in an expansion move in view of potential growth in the Central and South American region as THE Alliance deploys larger boxships to transit the new Panama Canal.

Yang Ming said its new wholly-owned Yang Ming (Latin America) Corp will serve as the company’s ‘Central and South America Regional Centre’ that has officially started on 8 June.

The Taiwanese line said it expects “moderate growth” in the South American region as THE Alliance deploys larger containerships to transit the expanded Panama Canal and add more ports of call to Caribbean Sea.

Yang Ming is a member of THE Alliance which includes Hapag-Lloyd, K Line, MOL and NYK.

“This regional centre is responsible for the management of Yang Ming’s network of agencies there to centralise pricing, operations, equipment control, slot and feeder arrangement in the heart of Panama City,” Yang Ming stated.

Yang Ming added that it expects to “gradually expand the market share and the business scale in the region and to reduce the operation costs significantly.”

At present, Yang Ming, through joint deployment, operates seven loops each week calling at 20 major Central and South America ports such as Manzanillo, Callao, San Antonio, Lazaro Cardenas, Guayaquil, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rio Grande, and Veracruz.

Source:seatrade-maritime.com