Virginia port first stop for reworked Asia vessel service

The Port of Virginia announced yesterday it is the first stop for the reworked EC4 weekly vessel service, which offers access to several southeast Asian markets.

The service will complement the port’s new intermodal rail service to Memphis, Tennessee, which launched last month, port officials said in a press release. Daily service is offered via Norfolk Southern Railway to the Class I’s intermodal terminal in Rossville, Tennessee, near Memphis.

"The cargo owners will benefit from this reworked service because a first-in port call allows them to get their cargo quicker and it gives cargo owners more markets, more options, for moving their exports and imports," said Virginia Port Authority CEO and Executive Director Stephen Edwards in a press release.

The four ocean carriers that make up the EC4 service are Ocean Network Express, Hapag-Lloyd, Yang Ming and Hyundai Merchant Marine. The port call rotation runs through Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Xiamen, China; Hong Kong; Yantian, China; Cai Mep, Vietnam; Singapore; Norfolk; Savannah; Charleston; and New York City with Suez Canal transit to the United States.