THE arrival of the 4,860-TEU MSC Cargoue, the largest containership deployed on the Swiss carrier's weekly Canada Express service, marks a "milestone" in the development of the Mediterranean-America market, said Montreal port CEO Sylvie Vachon.
 

    The arrival of the 54,549-ton, 275 metre long vessel, discharging 2,450-TEU at the Termont Terminal, before departing for Valencia with 2,000 TEU aboard, is the first box ship of this size at the port, reports London's Containerisation International. In the past Montreal received 4,200 to 4,400-TEU ships from OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd on their Europe-Canada routes.
 

    In a report from London's Containerisation International, MSC Canada managing director Sokat Shaikh said, "The MSC Cargoue is representative of our continued support to the Canadian market along with commitment to terminal investments at the Port of Montreal."
 

    Although the inland port's key markets are in the US Midwest, the US Northeast and Central Canada, its container trade with Europe has increased to 21 per cent of its overall traffic. In the first quarter alone its traffic rose by 3.5 per cent to 320,514 TEU year on year.
 

(Source:http://www.schednet.com)