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CHINESE flag carrier Cosco has increased capacity to one of its Asia-US Gulf Coast services by replacing old 5,000-TEU panamaxes with 8,800-TEUers, reports New York's Journal of Commerce.
The bigger ships that once could only be docked at west coast ports can now transit the expanded Panama Canal and will now be able to dock at freshly dredged US Gulf ports.
The 8,500-TEU Cosco Philippines usually called at the Port of Los Angeles and also called at ports in Europe and the US east coast.
But a 2023 service guide now lists the Cosco Philippines as part of the carrier's Gulf of Mexico Express service, which calls at Houston, Mobile and Tampa Bay.
Prior to this year, the Gulf of Mexico Express used a string of vessels with 4,250- 5,000-TEU capacity, according to the 2022 service guide. Apart from one 4,250-TEUer still in the string, the Gulf of Mexico Express now features ships from 8,000 to 8,800 TEU.
Cosco appears to have been testing demand for larger ships as three of its other postpanamaxes now deployed to the Gulf of Mexico Express made ad hoc calls to the Gulf Coast between June 2022 and January 2023.
Cosco's Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) unit has also redeployed three postpanamaxes for the first time to the US Gulf service. The guide previously listed the ships as deployed on OOCL's Hibiscus Express service from China to Long Beach.
Asian imports through US Gulf Coast ports in December 2022 saw their sharpest annual decline since the 2020 pandemic, falling 14.2 per cent from a year earlier, according to PIERS data.
However, the total level of Asian goods moving through the US Gulf Coast is still well above pre-Covid levels.
As new distribution and warehouse capacity continues to migrate out of the west coast, Gulf Coast ports are expanding to handle the bigger vessels.
Port Houston said in a statement this week it has completed the first 11-mile segment of its planned widening of the Houston Ship Channel that will allow postpanamaxes to better move around tankers and bulk carriers.
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