SC Line adds shipping service from Port Everglades to Cuba

SC Line adds shipping service from Port Everglades to Cuba
By Doreen Hemlock
Sun Sentinel

Cargo shipping line adds Cuba service from Fort Lauderdale
Now, two shipping companies service Cuba from Port Everglades
In another sign of growing U.S. links with Cuba, shipping company SC
Line has started up service between Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades
and the communist-led island.

SC Line can serve the Cuban seaports of Mariel and Santiago every two
weeks on a route that circles between Florida, Cuba, Panama and
Colombia. It made its first stop in Cuba on Sunday with its Caroline
Russ vessel, which can carry shipping containers, vehicles, breakbulk
and other varied cargo.

Entrepreneurs see more opportunity in Cuba under latest U.S. rules
"We're ready to respond to customer volume. We could add bigger ships,
more ships or weekly service if needed," said Jose Pardo, chief
marketing officer from company offices in Panama.

Port Everglades already has shipping service to Cuba from Crowley
Maritime, the Jacksonville-based line authorized since 2001 to ship
food, humanitarian supplies and other approved items to the island.
Crowley typically serves Cuba's new container port at Mariel weekly.

Shipments to Cuba have been limited under the 5-decades-old U.S. embargo
against the island. But trade now is poised to grow, as the Obama
administration since Dec. 17 has adopted a new policy of engagement to
Cuba that punches more holes in the embargo.

Washington has eased U.S. rules to sell telecom products on the island
and also eased trade with Cuba's growing private sector, which includes
more than half a million people deemed "self-employed."

The administration also has streamlined rules for U.S. travel to Cuba,
spurring a surge in arrivals of Americans with no family there. New
reports show the number of those Americans visiting through Sept. 2
topped 100,000, similar to the total who visited in all of last year
before Obama's new policy.

Still, many U.S. companies are awaiting authorization from Cuba to start
up on the island, including cruise companies and ferry companies that
could operate from PortMiami and Port Everglades.

SC Line this winter switched to the bigger, faster and more modern
Caroline Russ ship on its route from Port Everglades. The
10,488-gross-ton vessel can carry up to 190 trucks, 470 cars and 120
shipping containers on chassis. It departs every other Friday from the
Broward County seaport.

The shipping line has been calling on Port Everglades since 2012.
Founded by Spain's Sola family in 2006, SC Line operates from Panama and
aims to expand in the Caribbean Basin region.

dhemlock@sunsentinel.com, 305-810-5009, @dhemlock on Twitter

Source: SC Line to add shipping service to Cuba from Port Everglades -
Sun Sentinel -
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-shipping-cuba-broward-20150924-story.html