Buenos Aires, Argentina and Itajai, Brazil – Direct services between Asia and the East Coast of South America will begin port calls at APM Terminals Buenos Aires, Argentina, and APM Terminals Itajaí, Brazil. The weekly Asian service, operated jointly with 13 vessels from Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, Zim, Hamburg Süd and Hyundai, will call the Asian ports of Kelang, Singapore, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Shekou and Busan. The service will begin August 25th with the arrival of the first vessel into Terminal 4 Buenos Aires.

APM Terminals Argentina Managing Director Silvia Iglesias said “We are excited to welcome this new service that expands Argentina’s markets into Asia for our customers. We can now offer more supply chain solutions for importers and exporters using our ondock rail service and terminal connectivity.”

Argentina’s annual container throughput in 2016 was 1.59 million TEUs. Buenos Aires, which handled 1.4 million TEUs last year, is the fourth-busiest container port in South America.

In Brazil, the first vessel is scheduled to arrive at APM Terminals Itajaí on September 9th. The service will call bi-weekly through April 2018, due to turning basin restrictions for six of the 13 vessels in the string which exceed 300 meters in length. With the completion of the expanded turning basin in the Itajai/Navegantes river complex next year, weekly service will be introduced.

Ricardo Arten, Managing Director of APM Terminals in Brazil said “This new service is good news for our landside customers who will now compete better in world markets with more routing choices. This is the second Asia/East Coast South America service available in Itajaí, which already handles the ASAS service operated by Maersk Line, MSC and MOL. Equally important, the new string boosts our port’s economic impact to the city of Itajaí and region.”

Located in Southern Brazil, in the State of Santa Catarina, Itajaí is in the second-largest container port complex in Brazil with a throughput of 1.1 million TEUs in 2016. Frozen poultry is a major export through the port, where APM Terminals Itajaí handled 200,000 TEUs last year.