A new weekly container shipping service connecting the Port of Mobile directly to major ports in Northern Europe is set to begin operating in May, giving Alabama shippers another route to move goods across the Atlantic.
The Alabama State Port Authority and APM Terminals Mobile jointly announced the launch of the service, known as AL4, which will be operated through a vessel-sharing agreement among five international ocean carriers: Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, Taiwan’s Yang Ming, and Japan’s NYK Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and “K” Line. The group of carriers operates jointly under the name THE Alliance.
Under the new rotation, vessels will call at Mobile before sailing to Southampton, England; Antwerp, Belgium; and Bremerhaven, Germany, then on to Le Havre, France, before crossing to Veracruz and Altamira in Mexico and Houston and New Orleans, returning to Mobile to complete the loop. The addition of the transatlantic route means Mobile is now served by all three of the world’s largest global container shipping alliances, port officials said.
For each of the five carriers involved, the AL4 rotation will mark the first weekly container vessel service calling at the Port of Mobile, a milestone port leaders say reflects growing recognition of the terminal’s capacity and location along the Gulf Coast.
“We are extremely excited to welcome THE Alliance and its carriers to APM Terminals Mobile,” said Brian Harold, managing director of APM Terminals Mobile. “The trade lane between North Europe and the U.S. Gulf has been a good market for us, particularly over the past few years. It’s great to see THE Alliance take notice of that, and we’re looking forward to working with them as they grow in Mobile.”
APM Terminals Mobile opened in 2008 and handled a record 277,307 twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, of cargo in 2016, a figure that underscores the steady growth in container traffic moving through the port in recent years.
The Alabama State Port Authority and APM Terminals have continued to invest heavily in the container terminal since it opened. Last year, APM Terminals announced a $47.5 million Phase 2 expansion project designed to increase the terminal’s annual throughput capacity to 500,000 TEUs.
The terminal’s berths currently have a depth of 45 feet and are served by two ship-to-shore cranes capable of reaching 18 rows across a vessel. As part of the Phase 2 expansion, crews are adding two new super-post-Panamax cranes with a 22-row reach and expanding the container yard by 20 acres, with that work expected to be completed by June. The larger cranes will allow the terminal to handle some of the biggest container vessels in operation worldwide.
The port’s newly deepened lower harbor turning basin can accommodate vessels up to 1,300 feet long calling at the container terminal, giving Mobile the capacity to handle larger ships as global carriers continue to add bigger vessels to their fleets.
The Port Authority and APM Terminals have also collectively invested more than $55 million in a new Intermodal Container Transfer Facility, which opened in June 2016. That facility connects the port to Canadian National/Illinois Central rail lines, providing direct rail service to Memphis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Decatur and Chicago, as well as destinations in Canada.
James K. Lyons, chief executive officer of the Alabama State Port Authority, said the new service strengthens Mobile’s position as a shipping gateway for the region.
“We’re extremely pleased to have THE Alliance call our port, and we appreciate their confidence in Mobile as an alternate gateway,” Lyons said. “The service will provide more options and fast transit times into Europe, which will greatly benefit both our current and future shippers.”
Port officials say the combination of deeper berths, expanded crane capacity and direct rail connections positions the Port of Mobile to continue attracting new shipping partners as international carriers look for efficient alternatives to more congested East and West Coast ports.