Heavylift specialist Rickmers-Linie has deployed four vessels of 120-tonnes lifting capacity on a new service linking North Asia with South America and the US east coast.

The Hamburg-based operator's NCS service will call each month at the ports of Moji, Kobe, Yokohama and Nagoya in Japan, Guayaquil in Ecuador, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Puerto Bolivar in Colombia, Guanta in Venezuela, Port-au-Prince in Haiti and Savannah, Charleston and Philadelphia on the US east coast.

Additional ports can be called at, said a company statement. In Asia, for example, the schedule permits calls in Northern China (Shanghai ?C Dalian range) and in South Korea.