Provider of products and services to the shipping industry Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) has secured the first contract under its new ‘canal transit’ solution with very large gas carrier (VLGC) owner and operator Avance Gas for the Panama Canal transit of its Neopanamax ships Passat and Breeze.
The company launched a new Ships Agency ‘canal transit’ solution for the new Panama and Suez Canals which would deal with arranging all permits, payments, rebates, handling PDA/RDA/FDA needs, giving regulatory advice, and delivering further support services, including husbandry.
“Both of these expansion programmes have the potential to deliver huge time, capacity and cost efficiencies for shipowners and operators, but only if their transits are problem free ,” Steffen Langlete, Product Manager, Ships Agency WSS, said.
The first ships to take advantage of the offer are the two 83,000 cmb VLGCs from Avance Gas, which passed through the new canal in the last week of June.
The canal was inaugurated on June 26 as the Neopanamax vessel COSCO Shipping Panama made its inaugural passage .
The Panama Canal Expansion Programme is the largest development project to take place on the waterway since its opening in 1914.
Egypt’s new Suez Canal expansion opened in August 2015, cutting vessel waiting time from 11 hours to 3 hours and potentially doubling the number of daily transits.