American Feeder Lines to start first service

American Feeder Lines, which says its vision and mission is the “realization of America’s Marine Highways,” says it will start operations in the second quarter of 2011. Last year the company hired Hapag-Lloyd veteran Rudy Mack as its COO. Its first service will be  to run a modern container feeder of 1,000-1,300 TEU capacity in a weekly service connecting Boston, Mass., and Portland, Me., with Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. This is the path of the former “Yankee Clipper”  which provided regular weekly services to the New England states, carrying containers for Hapag-Lloyd during Mr. Mack’s Hapag-Lloyd days.

Andrew Haines has been hired as Vice President Line Management and a regional office will be set up in Boston.

American Feeder Lines, it may be remembered, is the start-up that last July was reported to have signed a letter of intent with Aker Philadelphia Shipyard for five Jones Act containerships for American Feeder Lines Holdings L.P.and a similar LOI for five more containerships of the same design with an unnamed shipyard in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Its cofounders are Tobias Koenig and Percy Pyne IV, of New York real estate investment and consulting firm Pyne Companies Ltd. Mr. Koenig is a major player in the Hamburg, Germany, based shipping investment market. His Koenig & Cie. GmbH & Co. KG has launched more as 80 closed-end funds with a total investment volume of more than 4.2 billion euros. Most of these funds are investments in ships, putting the company into the top quartile of all ship initiators in Germany.

“We are very proud to announce our first North American Feeder Service along the M 95 corridor, connecting the New England States with the world’s liner network via the ports of Boston, Portland and Halifax” said chairman and cofounder Percy Pyne IV. “We have spent a lot of time with the ports and the industry stakeholders in New England. Our research showed that importers and exporters in the region are disadvantaged as there is a lack of all water services serving the region. Many conversations have pointed us to the obvious need, shippers and receivers made commitments, which have encouraged us to take our decision.”

March 4, 2011