The Canaveral Port Authority has welcomed the decision by StreamLine for its Blue Streamweekly liner service to call at its new Canaveral Cargo Terminal, owned and operated by GT USA.
The service adds Port Canaveral to the trade route that includes Central America, Europe and the Caribbean. The first call at Canaveral is scheduled for 31 January, with thearrival of theM/V Norderoog.
StreamLines, which forms part of the Seatrade Group, is a diverse container line providing refrigerated and dry container service specialising in fresh produce and perishables. The launch of this new service is part of the company’s development plan and expands Port Canaveral’s relationship with StreamLine’s parent company Seatrade, which currently offers GreenSea specialised service calling monthly at Canaveral.
“This service validates our new terminal and Canaveral’s cargo expansion with valuable central Florida logistics impacts,” said Port Canaveral CEO John E. Walsh. “We are thrilled and applaud StreamLines, a valued and trusted name in shipping, on the decision to choose Port Canaveral.”
With five ships with 1,300 TEU capacity and 250 reefer plugs, the weekly Blue Stream service will offer one of the fastest services from Florida to Europe at just 11 days and from Central America to Port Canaveral in three days. Port Canaveral is the exclusive US port of call for this service.
“We see Canaveral as an important transit point for refrigerated, dry and project cargoes between Central America, Florida and Europe,” said Pablo Gonzalez, general manager of StreamLines.
“Working closely with our US general agents, North American General Agents, we are committed to first-class customer service by providing ‘fast, dedicated, direct’ service.”
From Canaveral, theM/V Norderoog will proceed directly to Rotterdam, with calls in Tilbury and Radicatel, France.
After departing Europe, the schedule loop takes the vessels to the French West Indies ports of Fort de France, Martinique, Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe and Phillipsburg, St, Maarten – serving a Caribbean market based westbound out of Europe that is quite familiar to StreamLines.
From St. Maarten, the vessels then proceed on to Moín, Costa Rica; Puerto Cortés, Honduras; and Santo Tomas, Guatemala and from there directly on to Port Canaveral.
According to Alberto Cabrera, Port Canaveral’s senior director of cargo business development, “This service will strengthen Florida’s perishable import market from Central America and provide a Central Florida gateway to shippers seeking to lower inland transportation costs and to get their product to market faster. At the same time, it creates an efficient outlet for Florida shippers to export products directly to northern Europe.”
Canaveral Cargo Terminal, operated by GT USA, is Port Canaveral’s new state-of-the-art facility handling multipurpose cargo and containers. GT USA is investing US$100m into facilities, infrastructure, equipment and workforce.
