Feature, Freight News, Sea

The shape of ships to come

[ August 16, 2016   //   Chris ]

Tilbury’s London Container Terminal and the Port of London Authority have welcomed the first call of a ‘neo-panamax’ vessel in the UK following the opening of the enlarged Panama Canal.

The MSC-operated Sofia Celeste – capacity 8,800teu – is the first in a new class of vessels deployed on a reconfigured service connecting the West Coast of South America, East Coast of North America and Northwest Europe. She is the first to trade on MSC’s newly redesigned South America West Coast-US-Northwest Continent service, which calls in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and the Bahamas, Philadelphia and then Rotterdam.

LCT head of commercial, Ross McKissock, said: “The MSC Sofia Celeste marks a step change in connectivity for Tilbury’s customers offering much improved links to the growing South American and transatlantic market allied with access to Europe’s largest portside chill store which NFT opened at the port this year.”

Tags: Forth Ports, London Container Terminal, MSC, Tilbury