As first announced at the Finished Vehicle Logistics conference held in California in June this year, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics is expanding its ocean transport service from Veracruz in Mexico from September 2013 and will offer two to three sailings per month to the US East Coast, which will include connections to the logistics provider’s global network.
Service calls include the ports of Veracruz, Galveston, Brunswick, Charleston and Baltimore. Connections include those to Europe calling at Antwerp, Bremerhaven and Southampton.
“WWL is excited to support manufacturer needs for ocean transportation from Mexico to the US East Coast and beyond,” said Rich Heintzelman, executive vice president and head of Commercial for Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Americas. “As we see a shift toward greater domestic manufacturing in Mexico, it will become increasingly important to strengthen export-bound ocean services from Mexico around the globe.”
Speaking at the FVL conference in June, John Felitto, president and CEO of WWL Vehicle Services Americas, said the challenge on the new more regular service will be finding return flows. He said there were not currently enough volumes moving to Mexico to allow for a shuttle service. Felitto said that WWL would most likely triangulate flows between Mexico, the US and Europe or the Middle East (which is similar to what Höegh already does as well). OEMs wanting a weekly service would currently need to use a combination of ocean carriers.
The first vessel to launch the service will be the Freedom in September 2013.
