Horizon Lines expands its Transpacific service

Horizon Lines, Inc., a leading domestic ocean shipping and integrated logistics company, today announced it has secured two important agreements in the ongoing development of its new Asia liner service.

Horizon Lines has appointed Hon Wing Lam as its owner’s representative and Ben Line Agencies as its General Agent to support the company’s ongoing sales and operations in Shanghai and Ningbo.

As Horizon Lines owner’s representative, Lam brings more than 30 years of ocean transportation experience and spent the past 13 years working in China. Prior to joining Horizon Lines, Lam worked for several leading ocean carriers where, among other things, he managed shipping and logistics in the China trade.

Ben Line Agencies is one of Asia’s leading privately-owned shipping services companies. With over 150 years of experience in the shipping industry, the company has established a network of more than 90 owned offices employing 1,500 people across 15 Asian countries. As the general agent for Horizon Lines, Ben Line will support all sales efforts and operations in China.

Beginning on December 13, 2010, Horizon Lines will launch a weekly liner service, called the Five Star Express service, with port calls at Shanghai and Ningbo in Central China and Los Angeles and Oakland in California. Using its five 2,824 twenty-foot equivelent units (TEU) capacity Hunter Class vessels, Horizon Lines will offer some of the fastest transit times in the transpacific trade, including 11-day port-to-port transit from Shanghai to Los Angeles with Monday morning cargo availability every week at the nation/s busiest import gateway.

“The development of our Five Star Express service continues to be on schedule and we are very pleased with partnerships we have formed in China to support this operation,” said Brian Taylor, senior vice president, International Services, who noted that shippers are booking freight on the service already.