CHINA'S biggest shipping line, Cosco, has taken its third vessel of 4,253 TEU capacity from 20 vessels from its Jiangsu New Yangzijiang newbuilding programme due to be delivered this year and next.

The Cosco Houston is to join the second vessel, the Cosco Auckland, on the carrier's new Gulf of Mexico Express (GME) service that connects Korea and China to Colon, Panama, and then to Houston. Hanjin will co-load, naming the service AWT.

The service will deploy eight vessels of which Cosco will provide six and two from Hanjin. The port rotation is Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Shenzhen-Yantian, then to Colon, Houston and back to Busan.