Grand Alliance opens Vietnam service

The Grand Alliance consortium has introduced a direct shipping service between Vietnam and the US east coast from the port of Cai Mep, said an industry source.

The ship MV OOCL America docked at the deep-water port of Tan Cang-Cai Mep on Saturday in preparation for the journey.

As well as OOCL, the Grand Alliance group counts Hapag-Lloyd, MISC Berhad and NYK as its members.

In August 2009 the CKYH shipping alliance, which includes K Line, Coscon, Yang Ming and Hanjin, began its own direct service between the US east coast and Vietnam.

Grand Alliance will deploy a further 10 container ships with a possible capacity of 5,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) for the service.

The US is a major market for Vietnam's rapidly growing fresh produce sector.