To better serve shippers needing more vessel space and unsurpassed schedule integrity, Crowley Maritime Corporation's Latin America liner services unit has added a new larger, faster ro/ro ship to its Central America northern zone service.

The Stena Shipper, a 19-knot ship with 150 feu trailer spaces, will replace the M/V Tolosa, which can carry about 105 feu trailers at 17 knots. She will initially be deployed in Crowley's US East Coast - Central America northern zone service, which features four southbound sailings a week linking Port Everglades, FL, with Santo Tomas, Guatemala and Puerto Cortes, Honduras. San Salvador, El Salvador and Managua, Nicaragua are served overland via Santo Tomas and Puerto Cortes respectively. Sailings from Port Everglades occur Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

"The addition of this new ship to our fleet allows us to help our customers by bringing some additional capacity to our Latin America services fleet," said John Hourihan, Crowley senior vice president and general manager. "And because the ship is equal in size to eight of our 11 ro/ro ships in our fleet, and fast, we will be able to interchange her in any of our ro/ro services to preserve our schedule integrity."