Bullish on the Philippine market, Taiwanese-based shipping line Wan Hai has begun offering a new weekly service connecting Subic, Batangas and Cebu ports to Taiwan, Hong Kong and southern China.
The new Subic Bay Express Service (SES), launched in the Philippines on March 21, covers the ports of Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shekou, Subic, Batangas, and Cebu with a turnaround time of two weeks. The service uses two 900 twenty-foot equivalent unit capacity ships.
Wan Hai, which currently has eight services with port calls in the Philippines, will also launch in late April its CPX service covering the ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Manila North and Manila South.
The SES provides an alternative to the highly utilized Manila ports through Subic in the north and Batangas in the south. It is the first Wan Hai service to directly call the port of Batangas, and is the second weekly call of the Taiwanese carrier at Cebu port.
Wan Hai assistant vice president for Southeast Asia Marketing Department Tim Chan, in an interview with PortCalls on the sidelines of the SES launch, said the shipping line has a “strong intention to enhance our network in the Philippines because we think that this country has quite a potential”, noting the increase in the country’s cargo movements in line with its expanded GDP.
Along with Vietnam and Thailand, he noted the Philippines is one of the potential areas eyed for the transfer of factories affected by the ongoing US-China trade war. – Text and photo by Roumina Pablo
