Partner Shipping AS and Praxis Logistics Pty Ltd, joint venture partners in the NAPA (North America Pacific Asia) service, have announced the acquisition of a significant export contract from the Americas to various destinations in the Pacific Rim region. Effective 1 January 2010, the Chrysler Group LLC will utilise the NAPA service to export their product from the USA Port of Grays Harbor and the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas to Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, Philippines, Australian main ports, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Tahiti.

As a result of this successful contract acquisition, NAPA will be adding in the New Year an additional third vessel to its existing vessel fleet which will increase its schedule frequency to every 20 days and capacity by more than 30%.

In the Port of Grays Harbor, Chrysler will utilize Pasha Automotive’s facilities and services to support their export vehicle requirements from the Pacific Northwest. The Port of Grays Harbor is Washington’s only deep-water port located directly on the Pacific Coast and saves significant scheduled lead transit times from the USA to these Pacific Rim destinations. It is centrally located in the Pacific Northwest and has very strong transportation connections. The Union Pacific Railroad will make direct calls to the terminal. Railcars and accessorial equipment will be available on terminal for inland backhaul.

Kevin Moore, Director Praxis Logistics, stated “the NAPA service is delighted to have been awarded the Chrysler contract for vehicles to Asia and Oceania. Since its inaugural voyage in June this year, the level of support for the NAPA service has grown very quickly and today its high & heavy space is now being utilized to capacity. The awarding of the Chrysler contract to NAPA is a further endorsement of the strategic and economic value of the NAPA service to the Automotive, RoRo and Breakbulk markets in the Pacific Rim region.

The Commercial Director of Partner Shipping, Helge Helvik, stated “The Chrysler contract acquisition marks a paradigm shift for the Napa service with the linking of Los Angeles and Grays Harbor with Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico with additional vessels and lifting capacity. The NAPA partners, Praxis Logistics and Partner Shipping, would particularly like to thank the Pasha Group for its outstanding support in developing its excellent terminal and vehicle processing facility for the NAPA service and its customers, particularly Chrysler.”

The NAPA service currently operates two new state of the art PCTC vessels of approx 3900 CEU capacity. All vessels have ample capacity and deck strength for various Automotive, RoRo and Breakbulk cargoes. And the ‘MV Silverstone Express’ and ‘MV Positive Passion’ will soon be joined by an additional PCTC vessel with greater Automotive and High & Heavy deck capacity.