Oct.31--Crowley Maritime’s liner services group and Seaboard Marine have entered into a vessel-sharing agreement to launch a new weekly service with larger ships between South Florida, Costa Rica and Panama, beginning in November.
　　By sharing vessel space, Crowley and Seaboard will increase total capacity in the trade by using two vessels, each with capacity of 2,500 20-foot-equivalent units. Ships will call weekly at Crowley’s Port Everglades terminal in Florida and Seaboard’s PortMiami terminal before transiting to Puerto Limón, Costa Rica, and Colón and Manzanillo, Panama. Concurrent with the change, Seaboard will be moving all of its vessels that serve Panama to Manzanillo International Terminals.
　　A vessel will load in Miami and Port Everglades weekly for a Friday departure and then call in Puerto Limón on Tuesdays, Manzanillo on Wednesdays and Colón on Thursdays, before departing north on Saturdays from Puerto Limón.
　　“Our cooperation in this trade lane will allow us to continue to provide exceptional service to our customers while remaining competitive in the ever-changing market,” said Steve Collar, Crowley’s senior vice president and general manager of Latin America services, in a written statement. “We are particularly pleased that our combined service will provide the fastest transits in the market to and from Costa Rica.”
　　“This arrangement permits us to gain efficiencies while enhancing service to customers as we are actually adding capacity,” added Edward Gonzalez, Seaboard’s president and CEO. “Though not the primary reason for rationalizing our services, we are pleased that we can reduce our carbon footprint by doing so.”