NEW ORLEANS – The arrival of the Maersk Kotka on Monday, Feb. 9, 2015, to the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal signaled Maersk Line’s return of vessel service to the Port of New Orleans.
The weekly Northern European service is teamed with a weekly Mediterranean service through the 2M Alliance Maersk formed with Mediterranean Shipping Company. Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company are the largest- and second-largest container carriers in the world.
The 7,400-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit Maersk Kotka serves as the largest ship in the seven-vessel service.
“We’re thrilled to welcome back Maersk vessels to New Orleans,” Port President and CEO Gary LaGrange said. “For the last three years Maersk has offered service to New Orleans customers through slot charter agreements with various carriers. These new services will bolster Maersk’s presence in the Port and offer additional options for customers in our highest volume trade routes.”
The new vessels in the Mediterranean-Gulf service are scheduled to begin calling New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 15, with the arrival of the 6,200-TEU MSC Zambia. These two 2M services are in addition to MSC’s Caribbean Gulf Service and Central American Express Service.
Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Maersk’s fleet consists of 580 container vessels worldwide. The 2M Alliance is a 10-year vessel-sharing agreement between the two carriers aimed at increasing efficiencies for shippers. In 2014, the Port reported moving a record 490,526 TEUs through its Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal – an 8.8 percent increase from one year ago.
The Port of New Orleans is a deep-draft multipurpose port at the center of the world’s busiest port system — Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi River. Connected to major inland markets and Canada via 14,500 miles of waterways, six class-1 railroads and the interstate highway system, the Port is the ideal gateway for steel, project cargo, containers, coffee, natural rubber, chemicals, forest products, manufactured goods and cruising. An extensive network of ocean carrier services, along with added-value services like transloading of bulk into containers, make the Port of New Orleans the superior logistics solution for many types of cargo. To stay ahead of market demand, the Port has invested more than $100 million in capital improvement projects since 2012 and has a Master Plan to expand the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal to an annual capacity of 1.6 million TEUs.
