COSCO lines to expand on its service to DP World Prince Rupert facility

A Cosco Shippling Vessel at Fairview Terminal
(image from past PRPA information release)

Port watchers may soon see an increase in the number port calls for COSCO vessels, as the Chinese shipping company announces an expansion of its service to North America, this one with a focus it's service in and out of Prince Rupert.

The COSCO website shared news over the weekend of the launch of what the shipping company is calling its Transpacific BCO Express Line, which will see Five 4250 TEU vessels to be deployed on the "Prince Rupert express line"

The focus for the new service is to try to reduce the transit time for goods which is being hampered by dwell times at the LongBeach/Los Angeles Terminal.

"Prince Rupert express line" is a brand-new service by COSCO SHIPPING based on its long-term operation locally at Prince Rupert for more than ten years. Relying on the combined cooperation with local railway companies, COSCO SHIPPING Lines connects express Unit-trains, creating joint advantages of sea-rail intermodal transportation, which can not only effectively avoid the congestion of LALB terminals, which is hard to alleviate at present, but also transit through Prince Rupert railway to cover the vast US Mid-West inland areas such as Chicago, Memphis and Detroit. The transit time will be 2 weeks shorter compared with the current conventional path."

The Prince Rupert express line is one of two created by the Chinese shipping giant, the routing for both is as follows"

COSCO SHIPPING Lines --  "Prince Rupert express line" (CEN-EXPRESS) calling Qingdao-Shanghai-Prince Rupert and the "Los Angeles express line" (CEN-PLUS) calling Tianjin-Qingdao-Shanghai-Los Angeles .

The full announcement can be reviewed here.

The additional volume through Prince Rupert by COSCO should help build on throughput at DP World Fairview, with the most recent data from the Prince Rupert Port Authority showing

close to 7million tonnes of container tonnage to date passing through the Northwest gateway.

More items of note related to DP World can be explored here.