Jamaica Gleaner News - Grand Alliance to expand service through Kingston - Tuesday

The Grand Alliance will expand its service through the Kingston Container Terminal (KCT) with the addition of a westbound route beginning at the end of this month. The service began its eastbound route through the Caribbean calling at KCT's trans-shipment hub on May 23, after the Port Authority of Jamaica secured the service.

The Grand Alliance is comprised of Zim Israeli Consolidated Shipping, the Orient Overseas Container Line of China, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line of Japan, and the German line, Hapag-Lloyd. The service is made up of eight vessels, three of which are provided by Zim and five by the other lines.

Aiming to attract new services

The new service calls at Kingston on a weekly basis on Saturdays and continues its service from KCT the following Sunday.

This new scheduling of calls to Kingston by the Grand Alliance is a result of the ongoing efforts of the Port Authority to attract new services to help mitigate the downturn in calls to the KCT and boost its volumes, which, as in the case of other ports worldwide, have been affected by the international economic recession.

The Port Authority's marketing efforts also bore fruit in December of last year when two Chilean Lines, CSAV and CCNI initiated new services through the Kingston Container Terminal.