MSC includes Hamburg in its South American schedule

On October 29, 2008 the container ship MSC LEIGH called at the Port of Hamburg as the Mediterranean Shipping Company's (MSC) added it as an improvement to its regular services to the east coast of South America.

The MSC LEIGH is one of a total of six container ships that are used in the first of MSC's two regular container services, or loops, between Northern Europe and the east coast of South America, and that will now be handled at the Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg (CTH) on a weekly basis.

Hamburg's new regular service links the ports of Suape, Santos, Buenos Aires, Rio Grande, Santos and Itaguai (Sepetiba) with the European continent.

The Northern European ports served are those of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven and Hamburg.

Besides the two ships owned by MSC, the MSC LEIGH (4,870 TEU) and the MSC KRYSTAL (5,700 TEU), Loop 1 will also be using the chartered vessels MSC LOS ANGELES (5,760 TEU), MSC SHENZHEN (5,550 TEU), MSC EGYPT (5,530 TEU) and MSC VENEZIA (5,450 TEU). Because of the large volume of refrigerated goods that is shipped north, the ships are equipped with 500 to 600 refrigerated container slots or more. The service speed of the vessels makes it possible to complete the round trip in 42 days.<Korea Shipping Gazette>