This will include the following: 

A new joint G6/Zim SCE service, replacing the existing GA/ZIM SCE combo service, in which Zim will deploy 5 of 9 vessels, with the following intended rotation:

Xiamen-Yantian-Da Chan Bay-HKG- Kaohsiung-Panama Canal-Manzanillo-Kingston-Savannah-Charleston-Kingston-Manzanillo-Panama Canal-Xiamen

Zim will also have space through slot exchange on the following all water East Cost services crossing the Suez:

AZX: Laem Chabang-Singapore-Colombo-Suez Canal-Damietta-Cagliari-Halifax-New York-Savannah-Norfolk-Cagliari-Damietta-Suez Canal-Singapore

CEC: HKG-Shekou-Yantian-Singapore-Suez Canal-New York-Norfolk-Charleston-Suez Canal-Singapore-Cai Mep-HKG

ZIM’s services between Asia and the US East Coast, Central America and the Caribbean will continue, adding new links via Suez from South China and South East Asia. 

Rafael Ben-Ari, ZIM VP Shipping: “These new services and joint ventures are part of ZIM’s long-term strategic program, nurturing partnerships and designed for continuous improvement of the service offered to our customers on all major trade routes.”

About ZIM

ZIM Integrated Shipping Ltd is one of the leading carriers in the global container shipping industry. ZIM’s fleet comprises over 100 modern vessels, with a total carrying capacity of over 337,000 TEU.

ZIM is committed to providing reliable, flexible shipping solutions based on expertise gained from over 66 years of experience. ZIM cultivates long-term partnerships with its customers, delivering a range of about 60 services adapted to meeting their specific needs.

February container volume in TEU was nearly 21 percent higher than the same month two years ago, and loaded container volume saw the strongest month since October 2008.

South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) President and CEO Jim Newsome noted during the Board meeting that this reflects a “trend in the right direction” and that the next few months are traditionally the busiest part of the year for the port’s container business.

“We are going into the strong part of our year,” Newsome said during the meeting. “All of the lines are making their service deployment decisions that come into effect in May, and we expect to see additional big ships in our harbor from more carriers.”

Container volume for the first eight months of the fiscal year are up more than 11 percent to 1,024,121 TEUs handled from July to February, up from 920,547 TEUs during the same period last year.

Before convening the meeting, the SCPA Board was joined by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and LTC Ed Chamberlayne of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District to discuss progress on Charleston’s post-45 harbor deepening project. The project’s feasibility study is now at the midway mark.

Chamberlayne told the Board that there is a lot of active work ongoing in the harbor today as part of the study’s information gathering. In two years “we’ve come a very long way,” he said. Chamberlayne explained that many parts of the project are ahead of schedule and the project is presently fully funded and on an aggressive timetable.

Senator Graham congratulated LTC Chamberlayne on the progress made and thanked him for his leadership.

Graham also noted that new legislation that will be introduced in Congress would establish a more merit-based approach to harbor improvement projects by fully utilizing the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. He predicted that Charleston’s project would compete well for federal funding, which would cover 40 percent of the project’s construction cost.

“For us to grow our economy, we’ve got to do the big deal,” Sen. Graham said. “The economic engine of South Carolina is the Port of Charleston. I am confident that the Port of Charleston will fare very well in that merit-based system.”

This project will boost research and development related to more sustainable load handling equipment. The EU funding for the project totals EUR 1.4 million.

Under the project, a new approach to control systems will be developed, in order to improve operational safety conditions and the efficiency of load handling equipment. The project will also involve the creation of design strategies for advanced light materials applied to load handling structures, in order to reduce their weight and fuel consumption at the same time.

The academic partners were chosen on the basis of their knowledge, experience and infrastructure. The West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland will contribute its competencies in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and mechatronics. Silesian University of Technology from Poland will share their know-how in structural engineering, especially strengthening of structures. The Swedish Lulea University of Technology has substantial experience and skills related to robust industrial sensor technology.

“Innovation requires out of the box thinking and this project is like an innovation incubator. By combining our decades of experience in fulfilling our customers’ needs for professional load handling, with the latest academic knowledge from various disciplines, together we can achieve better results in terms of more-sustainable load handling than would have otherwise been possible. The project will involve taking a multidisciplinary approach to crane construction and we will promote the mutual transfer of knowledge between academic and industrial partners, as well as between academic partners from different countries,” explains Rafal Sornek, Vice President, Research and Development, Hiab.

 The project receives funding from the EU, it is part of the EU’s Industrial and Academy Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) and 7th Framework Programme. IAPP promotes innovation and knowledge transfer between industry and academia partners throughout the EU.

Dougherty will become CEO on April 8, 2013. Dougherty, 50, has been building telecommunications, fiber-optic and electronics-manufacturing businesses for more than 30 years. He most recently was President of Tyco Electronic Corp.’s Communications and Industrial Segment, a global manufacturing business that annually sells $4.5 billion worth of products in the industrial, telecommunications, consumer-electronics, medical-devices and solar-energy markets.

“AS&E is known globally for its world-class inspection technologies that are a critical part of keeping us safe from terrorism,” said Dougherty. “I’m eager to join the company and help it to remain in the forefront of the design, manufacture and global marketing of its crucially important products.”

Dougherty began his career at General Instrument, where in the 1980s he helped build one of the country’s leading broadband networking businesses. When General Instrument was acquired by Motorola in 2000, he took charge of Motorola’s Voice-Over IP capability and built it into Motorola’s Voice and Data Solutions, a premier provider of end-to-end IP networking businesses today.

In 2006, Dougherty joined Tyco International Corp., heading its $1 billion dollar wireless segment. Dougherty led the restructuring of the Tyco Electronics Wireless group that sells hardened communications technologies to public-safety agencies and first responders. Tyco Electronics divested the public-safety unit to Harris Corp. in 2009 at which time Dougherty joined Harris Corp. In 2010, Dougherty rejoined Tyco Electronics to manage and restructure the $4.5 billion Communications and Industrial Segment.

Denis R. Brown, Chairman of the AS&E Board, said, “We are particularly excited by Mr. Dougherty’s experience building technology businesses with operations and markets around the world. We look forward to collaborating closely with him as he works to expand our company’s technology, revenue and global marketing reach.”

Dougherty received a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s of Business Administration from Villanova University.