ZIM feeder

 ZIM's feeder service to New York and Kingston, Jamaica, called CFX (Canada Feeder Express) has apparently been combined with another feeder service the Central America Gulf Express (CGX) which includes calls in Kingston, Houston and Altamira, Mexico. The recent callers on the CFX, the Contship Leo and Contship Pep have extended their trips to the Gulf of Mexico and today's arrival (November 17), the Pacific Trader was listed for CGX, arriving from Altamira (October 30 - November 2), Kingston (November 8-9) and New York (November 14-15).

Built as the Pacific Trader in 2008 by Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing, the 9957 gt, 13,760 dwt ship has a capacity of 1118 TEU and carried tow 45 tonne SWL cranes. (The cranes are extended over side to clear the shore cranes as the ship works cargo at PSA Fairview Cove.) The ship carried the name Mell Semakau from 2010 to 2012.

Combining the two feeder services is likely a way of better utilizing the ships. After couple of boom years, shipping lines are being forced to tighten their belts again, with some shipping rates in free fall and charter rates for ships diving.

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