Port of Charleston beneficiary of restructured service to Brazil

The world’s largest ocean-going cargo carrier, Maersk Line, is realigning its liner service to Brazil, resulting in weekly vessel calls for Charleston and the dropping of calls in Savannah, Ga.

The move is designed to improve coverage for the Brazilian market, where the Port of Charleston has a strong market share, the company said. Charleston handles 25% of all container trade between the east coast of South American and U.S. ports from Virginia to Miami.

Maersk, the Port of Charleston’s biggest customer, is ending its “NASA2” joint service with French-based CMA-CGM, which covers trade from the east coast of South America, and will streamline its “NASA1” service on the same north-south route.

Starting at the end of October, the NASA1 service will drop Savannah, Miami and Montevideo, Uruguay. It will offer direct calls at Newark, N.J.; Philadelphia; Charleston; Port Everglades, Fla.; Rio Grande, Texas; Itajai, Brazil; Santos, Brazil; Salvador da Bahia, Brazil; and Kingston, Jamaica.