USA: MSC’s Empire Service made its first Port Everglades call on July 17, restoring direct Asia access to the Florida gateway and adding a rail-connected Florida stop to the revised rotation.

Container vessel loading at Port Everglades, shown as an illustrative view of the port’s cargo operations.
An illustrative container vessel loading at Port Everglades in 2016; this is not the MSC Empire Service call. Photo: ImagePerson / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

Revised Empire rotation reaches South Florida

Port Everglades said the inaugural call restored its direct connection with Asia. Port Everglades Terminal, LLC handles the container service.

MSC replaced the Empire Service calls at Jacksonville and Miami with Norfolk, Virginia, and Port Everglades, Florida. The carrier’s April network advisory lists the rotation as Shanghai–Ningbo–Busan–New York–Baltimore–Norfolk–Port Everglades–Rodman–Shanghai.

Port Everglades is therefore the last U.S. call before the vessel proceeds to Panama and returns to Shanghai. MSC said the revised sequence should reduce exposure to port congestion, improve schedule reliability and support more consistent on-time arrivals.

Vessels expected on the route can carry up to approximately 8,800 twenty-foot equivalent units, the standard measure of container capacity.

“The Empire Service vessels anticipated to call our port have a TEU capacity up to approximately 8,800, placing them among the largest to berth here and will help speed additional goods to market,” said Joseph Morris, CEO and port director.

The port’s previous direct Far East connection was MSC’s Santana Service, also handled by Port Everglades Terminal.

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FEC rail facility links the port with inland markets

Port Everglades reported a record 1.167 million TEUs in its most recent fiscal year and currently has 26 container services, mainly focused on trade with the Caribbean and Latin America.

Florida East Coast Railway serves the port through a 43-acre near-dock Intermodal Container Transfer Facility. The site has 9,000 feet of processing track and 12,000 feet of storage track.

The facility transfers international containers between ships and trains and also handles domestic containers moving to or from Eastern U.S. markets. This gives cargo arriving on the Empire Service an established rail connection beyond the marine terminal.

MSC also revised its Amberjack Service, replacing Norfolk with Jacksonville as the final U.S. call on that route.

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