THE South Carolina Ports Authority announced that the New World Alliance consortium of ocean carriers and Evergreen are launching a new Far East weekly container service in June, marking the third new container service announced this year for Charleston and the first service for the port with a direct call in Vietnam.

The South China/Vietnam-US Southeast service (SVS) is a Suez service deploying 10 ships of capacity between 4,600 and 5,600 TEU. The service originates in Cai Mep, Vietnam and includes calls in Hong Kong and Yantian in China, Singapore and Tangier, Morocco.

Charleston is the last outbound port on the service, which highlights the port's prominence in handling the region's and the nation's export demand. "Charleston's position in this service demonstrates that ships will be taking on a significant amount of cargo here, relying on our deep water to fill up the ship with heavy exports," said Jim Newsome, president and CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority.

Charleston Harbour is the deepest in the Southeast region, with 45 feet of depth at mean low water (MLW), and can handle ships drafting up to 48 feet on the tides. Charleston's next harbour deepening project is currently underway.

Participating in the SVS service are the alliance carriers of APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) and Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), as well as Evergreen. The weekly service will call the Port of Charleston's Wando Welch Terminal on Saturdays, adding 52 ship calls a year to the port and supporting jobs across the maritime industry.