NYK Line Starts South America RoRo Service from Port Everglades

Japanese shipping company NYK Line has launched Magellan Straits Express, a new, monthly South America roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) service from Florida’s Port Everglades.

The new service was scheduled to start on November 7, 2016, with the vessel Rigel Leader, destined for the Port of Santos, Brazil.

The service will also include port calls in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, according to Port Everglades.

Port Everglades is Florida’s leading container port, serving as a gateway to Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

The port’s container throughput for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2016, amounted to 1.04 million TEUs.

Compared to the prior fiscal year 2015, total TEUs were down by 2 percent from 1.06 million, which port officials attribute to market fluctuations.

However, the port posted its best September throughput ever with 90,641 TEUs compared to 80,550 TEUs in 2015. Looking at growth over the past five years, TEU throughput is up almost 18 percent from FY2011 to FY2016.

In addition, bulk and break bulk cargo increased 13 percent from 1.56 million tons in FY2015 to 1.76 million tons in FY2016.