Wan Hai Lines Ltd (
The shipping company will replace five vessels, which each could carry 1,600 20ft containers, with ships that may have a capacity of as much as 3,500 20ft containers, it said in a statement.
"Wan Hai Lines' vessels will continue to call at US ports once a week, with the added capacity enabling Wan Hai Lines to accommodate our growing client base in both the US and Asia," the company said.
Cargo volume to the US is expected to increase by between 8 percent and 9 percent next year, as more companies base their factories in Asia, a trans-Pacific shipping group said. Freight rates are still below cost for many shipping companies as capacity has increased at a faster pace than demand.
Japan's Nippon Yusen K.K. and 13 other shipping companies in the group, which represents about 90 percent of trade on trans-Pacific routes, plan to raise rates next year after predicting combined losses of as much as US$2 billion for 2002.
Wan Hai, which isn't a member of the shipping group, gets between 5 percent and 7 percent of its sales from trans-Pacific services, said spokesman Jason Lee (
The vessels that currently serve the trans-Pacific routes will probably be used in Asia, allowing Wan Hai to reduce the number of ships that it charters, Lee said.
Wan Hai, established in 1965, has successfully diversified its business scope into shipping agency, sales and charter of ships and containers and terminal operations in recent years.
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