South Korean container line Hanjin Shipping is teaming up with compatriot Hyundai Merchant Marine and Taiwanese carrier Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. on a new service connecting the Far East with South America, with stops along the west coast of Central America.
Named WLX (West Latin Express) or SA2 (South America Loop 2), the new service will be operated with 10 vessels of 4,500 – 5,500 TEU on a weekly basis and it will start with the 5,551 TEU MV YM Green departing Taiwan’s port of Kaohsiung on July 9, 2015. The port rotation of the new service will be: Kaohsiung – Shekou – Ningbo – Shanghai – Pusan – Manzanillo, Mexico – Buenaventura, Colombia – Callao, Peru – Valparaiso, Chile – Lirquen, Chile –Manzanillo, Mexico – Pusan – Kaohsiung. Hanjin says that the introduction of this new service will improve transit times and provide extensive port coverage from Asia to the West Coast of Latin America including Mexico, and vice versa.