CMA CGM takes Cape route in bid to cut costs

Nine 4,000 teu vessels are currently employed on the PEX 2 service, but the French carrier will add an additional ship because of the slower journey. However, the company says it will still make considerable savings, given the approximate US$350,000 cost of transiting the Panama Canal for a ship of this size.

The revised PEX 2 port rotation eastbound from Trinidad is now essentially a circumnavigation voyage calling at Port of Spain, Keelung (optional), Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Ningbo, Chiwan, Shanghai and Pusan.

The service then crosses the Pacific to call at Ensenada, Manzanillo (Mexico), Panama Canal, Manzanillo (Panama), Kingston, Caucedo, Puerto Cabello, Port of Spain, and then east to Africa. The Port of Manzanillo, Panama, has been dropped from the end of the PEX 2 rotation before the eastbound leg to Africa.