EVERGREEN Marine Corporation (EMC) and Cosco Container Lines, together with new partner and Evergreen subsidiary, Lloyd Triestino (LT), plan to upgrade their Far East to South Africa and east coast of South America service (ESA).

By deploying one additional vessel, these three lines said they will extend their current port coverage on the ESA to Shanghai, Ningbo and Yantian.

The companies said in a joint statement that such a service upgrade would allow their vessels to make direct calls at major Chinese ports, and therefore save time originally required for transshipment and thus provide a faster and more efficient transportation service for their customers.

The new arrangement will begin late April, with 11 vessels in total to be deployed on the ESA service. Six of these will be provided by EMC, while Cosco and LT will contribute three and two respectively.

The port rotation of this 77-day round trip is: Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Durban, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santos, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Shanghai.