Kunsan-U.S. container service opens

A container ship regular service opens between Kunsan City in Southern Cheolla province and the U.S. this month. Kunsan City mayor, Kang Geun Ho, and Peter Scherland, president of Westwood Shipping Line, completed the agreement March 5 to open the container service between Kunsan and the U.S. from March.
The service is like this: Kunsan - Hakata - Osaka - Seattle - Vancouver - Longview - Seattle - Simize - Yokohama - Tokyo - Kunsan, and operates once monthly. Westwood Shipping Line will deploy a 40,000-ton class container ship with 10 cargo spaces, and a 2,800 ton loading capacity in the new service.
Westwood Shipping Line was established in 1982 and has 7 container vessels. It has transported containers, wood and processed goods from Asia to the American continent.
One Kunsan official said, "We expect that this container service between ports in Korea, Japan, the U.S., and Canada will increase imports and exports for Kusan Port."
Meanwhile, Kusan Regional Maritime Affaires & Fisheries Office will construct a container wharf for 2,000 TEU class 2 container vessels during the first half of 2004 at the Kunsan sixth wharf at a cost of about 105 billion won.