Lykes Lines expanded services - The company announced the launch of another link between the US Gulf, the Caribbean and East Coast South America, with a new US Gulf-Brazil service operating with three ships of approx. 1700 teu.

Mr. Tony Bruno, Senior Vice President declared this new service, called the US Gulf-Brazil service, will be particularly attractive to Brazilian exporters, especially as we will include a call at the northern port of Vila do Conde, in the province of Pará, on the northbound leg."

The port rotation is: Houston, New Orleans, Caucedo (Dominican Republic), Puerto Cabello (Venezuela), Imbituba, Santos, Vitoria, Salvador, Vila do Conde (all Brazil), Puerto Cabello, Cartagena (Colombia), Houston.

"The service, operating every two weeks, will allow us to offer some of the fastest transits on the trade between Houston/New Orleans and the Dominican Republic/Venezuela southbound, and between northern Brazil and the US Gulf northbound," explains Mr Bruno.

In the last few months, we have already launched a third weekly transpacific service - the Asia North America Sprint, and a direct service from North Europe to the Caribbean. We have also upgraded our services between West Coast South America and Central America/California.

"We have many loyal customers who want to ship with us whenever they can, so we constantly assess new markets and trade lanes to see if we, and our customers, can expand our businesses together," says Mr Bruno.