ATLANTA — Savannah has becomes the valued last port in Zim Integrated Shipping Services’ revised Mediterranean service, company officials announced Wednesday evening.
Being last means exports have a shorter time to travel to their overseas destination and experience less handling because the cargo needs reconfiguring at fewer ports.
Executives from Zim, which is based in Israel, threw the company’s first customer-appreciation event for Atlanta-based shippers at a posh, suburban hotel and used the occasion to announce the revised schedule.
“We needed to change in order to give our customers the best service,” said Rafi Danieli, Zim’s chief executive officer.
The changes, along with renewed dedication to customer service, resulted from surveys of major shippers in recent months.
The new, weekly schedule for the company’s ZCA service of seven vessels of 4,250 containers each travels south on the East Coast, with stops in Halifax, New York and Norfolk before calling on Savannah. Then the vessels make the 12-day transatlantic voyage to Valencia, Spain, and other stops in the Mediterranean.
“We increased our service in Savannah because there is so much interest in the forest industry with the South’s fast-growing pines,” said Brian Black, Zim’s vice president in Atlanta.
The service will be ideal for forestry exports as well as agricultural products such as cotton coming from Savannah, Black said.
The Georgia Ports Authority is delighted with the news, according to George Hearn, GPA’s senior director of trade development.
“Zim has served Savannah longer than any other steamship line, and we appreciate that loyalty,” Hearn said.
