DP World’s feeder service subsidiary Unifeeder has opened a Panama City office to coordinate operations and growth in the region, according to a press release. The firm plans to handle over 200k 20-ft containers and complete 800 port calls in Latin America this year, the statement notes. The move also comes as Unifeeder looks to sink investments into Latin American routes in a bid to unlock new avenues for trade.

Unifeeder is doubling down on new Latin American routes:

  • Unifeeder launched two new feeder services in the region this month, with the first connecting Manzanillo in Panama with Oranjestad in Aruba and Willemstad in Curaçao, and a second service linking Manzanillo and Cartagena in Colombia with Venezuela’s Maracaibo, Guanta, and Guaranao ports. The two routes accommodate all container types and sizes.
  • The Colombia-Panama direct service was inaugurated in February, connecting four Colombian ports — Turbo, Santa Marta, Cartagena, and Barranquilla — with Panama’s Manzanillo terminal. The route caters to containerized trade of perishable cargoes such as fresh fruit and bananas.
  • In March 2023, Unifeeder launched the Hispaniola-Puerto Rico service, in a bid to boost cargo movements between the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico.

An important step: “As DP World continues to expand in the region, the opening of our first office in Panama and the introduction of new feeder coverage represent a key step forward in our strategy to become the logistics partner of choice in [Latin America],” DP World EVP Americas Morten Johansen said in the statement.

A BIT CLOSER TO HOME- Unifeeder is kicking off a new premium service connecting Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port to three Chinese ports beginning 19 May, according to a separate statement. The China Gulf Express (CGE) will operate a weekly service calling at China’s Shanghai, Ningbo, and Shekou Ports, enabling transshipment connectivity via Jebel Ali to the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, East and South Africa, and Pakistan.

About Unifeeder: The DP World subsidiary provides cross-regional feedering services, moving cargoes between smaller ports and larger hubs for transshipment. The outfit operates some 150 vessels and moves upwards of 5.5 mn containers a year, serving hundreds of ports in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and the Americas. Unifeeder was established in Aarhus, Denmark in 1977, and was acquired by DP World in 2018, the statement says.

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