Port of Philadelphia welcomes its first neopanamax of 8,800 TEU
Time：2016-08-11
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The MSC Sophia Celeste, an 8,800 TEU vessel docked at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia for the first time, making it the largest ship to ever call the Port of Philadelphia.
"This new service comes as a direct result of the opening of the Panama Canal Expansion," said president of Greenwich Terminals LLC, David Whene, operator of the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.
"Coupled with the near completion of the Delaware River Deepening Project, the Port of Philadelphia is poised to capitalise on this new service line as the only direct US east coast port of call between the west coast of South America and Europe."
The MSC Sophia Celeste was completed in 2014 and has an on-board capacity of 8,819 TEU, of which 1,462 TEU have reefer plugs. The ship is the first to trade on MSC`s newly redesigned South America West Coast-USA-Northwest Continent service line, which makes stops in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and the Bahamas, before calling at Philadelphia before heading to Rotterdam.
Holt Logistics said the new weekly service will not only produce more imports from South America through Philadelphia, but also increase volumes from the Midwest destined for export to Northwest Europe.