On Feb. 20, the G6 Alliance, a vessel-sharing consortium composed of six ocean carriers, announced changes to its transatlantic services that connect the Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia trade lanes with the US East Coast. In its announcement, the G6 partners said four-out-of-the-five realigned services will call The Port of Virginia.
Two of those services will be last-out vessel calls, meaning Virginia will be their last US East Coast stop before heading to their foreign destinations; last-out calls can be crucial in developing export business.
“These last-out calls will be of interest to export customers in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest because The Port of Virginia will be able offer some of the best transit times to Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia,” said John F. Reinhart, The Port of Virginia’s CEO and executive director, said. “For those customers with just-in-time inventory models, transit times are crucial. It is our opinion that these last-out vessel calls will create opportunities for customers that have not been able to use Virginia in the past simply because of their business models.”