SIMIC

The new Sentosa service is aimed at improving reliability in the transpacific network at a time when the entire market remains under considerable systemic pressure, MSC said in a statement.

"The new Sentosa service is a dedicated MSC line to link southeast Asia with the Pacific South West market and to catalyse trade between countries such as Thailand and Vietnam and the US west coast," the statement added.

MSC said the service should enable a significantly improved transit time for MSC customers shipping goods between southeast Asia and California and also ensure that MSC retains a direct Laem Chabang-Long Beach call (in both directions) within its transpacific network.

"The service compensates for the removal of a Laem Chabang-US call on the Jaguar service, which is being announced separately," MSC said.

This service is expected to start in early April with the MSC Ornella and its rotation will be as follows: Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Laem Chabang, Vung Tau, Long Beach, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen and returning to Singapore.