Port of Charleston adds new shipping services

The Port of Charleston received a boost Friday when shipping services from Asia and South America announced they will increase business with the port.

Charleston will see the return of a weekly "all-water" service from Asia that was suspended in December due to the economic slump.

The "All Water 5," or AWE-5, service, a joint operation of the CKYH alliance carriers of Cosco, K Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin, will resume on May 21.

Eight vessels with an average capacity of 4,014 20-foot-long equivalent length containers, or TEUs, will be deployed. Charleston will be the last U.S. port of call outbound.

In a separate move, Hanjin Shipping, K Line and Yang Ming are joining CSAV Norasia to introduce a new service that will provide additional capacity from the east coast of South America to the U.S. East Coast.

The "South and North America" service, or SNA, will deploy five ships with average capacity of 2,500 TEUs.

The SNA service replaces an existing service that was operated by Hanjin, K Line, Yang Ming and Hyundai Merchant Marine with four 1,800-TEU vessels. Charleston is the last U.S. port outbound.