Hamburg Sud Rio De La Plata

Hamburg Süd's Rio De La Plata vessel at the Port of Hamburg

German shipping group Hamburg Süd is to expand its River Plate Express service from Europe to the east coast of South America by adding two more vessels to the existing four-strong fleet.

The service encompasses a 42-day round-trip, with ships visiting Rotterdam, Tilbury, Antwerp and Le Havre in addition to Hamburg, before serving the ports of Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio Grande do Sul and Sepetiba.

One of the vessels on the River Plate route, the Rio De La Plata, recently departed the Port of Hamburg and will be followed by sister ships Rio Blanco, Rio de Janeiro and Rio Negro, all of which boast a slot capacity of 5,900 TEUs.

Last year, some 305,000 containers were carried between the Port of Hamburg and the east coast of South America, with Brazil listed ninth in the list of the Port's top ten trading partners.