APM Terminals Elizabeth welcomes first call from Wan Hai’s Trans-Pacific Service
APM Terminals Elizabeth welcomed the first call of Wan Hai’s revised Far East – US East Coast AA7 service this month. The terminal's facilities for efficiently handling Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs) play a key role for the new service which plans to operate larger ships on the route, according to the company's release.
The weekly AA7 service is a new joint service between Hapag-Lloyd and Wan Hai. Twelve ships of 4,500 to 13,500 TEU (Twenty foor Equivalent Units) will rotate between Shanghai, Ningbo, Taipei, Shekou, Cai Mep, Singapore, Colombo, Suez Canal, APM Terminals Elizabeth, Norfolk, Charleston, and Savannah. The smaller ships of 4,500 to 6,500 TEU currently operated by Wan Hai will be gradually replaced this year with larger ships of 7,500 to 13,500 TEU.
APM Terminals Elizabeth has a 6000ft (approx. 1,830 metre) berth and is equipped with Super Post Panamax cranes with a 23-container outreach to efficiently work multiple ULCVs and Neo-Panamax Vessels simultaneously.
In 2022, the terminal invested $18.9m to expand storage capacity in the container storage yard, adding space for 250,000 TEUs. Investment in equipment includes six new ship-to-shore cranes, with two already commissioned, two arriving this summer and two in 2024. APM Terminals Elizabeth's diesel container handling fleet will also be electrified this year, in support of the company’s global decarbonisation ambition to be fully net zero by 2040.
