Network Shipping Ltd. (NWS), the shipping division of Del Monte, is chartering spaces to CMA CGM for trade between Costa Rica, Guatemala and the U.S. West Coast.

This agreement is expected to involve weekly reefer service from Ecuador to Guatemala and Costa Rica to the U.S. West Coast at the ports of Hueneme, Bolívar, Caldera and Quetzal.

This service fulfills a three-week itinerary using three SDARI 1300 Gold Reefers that are of the 1,276 twenty-foot equivalents (TEU) class vessels, the Del Monte Valiant, the Del Monte Pride and the Del Monte Harvester, each of which can hold up to 634 refrigerated forty-equipment units (FEU).

Under this agreement, CMA CGM will get a fixed allocation of 50 TEUs with an average of 14 tons per TEU, which includes 25 refrigeration connections for each round-trip vessel.

The French shipping line will also have access to an extra allocation of 26 TEUs depending on usage, including 13 reefer containers, according to the FMC filing.

CMA CGM may also use its allowance for transshipment cargoes with the origin or destination in countries outside of the agreement. This service is set to begin with the landfall of the container ship, Del Monte Pride, in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica on Oct. 22.

The request was submitted to the United States Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), according to Mundo Maritimo.

Until now, CMA CGM has been covering the route through spaces provided by services operated by Sealand Americas and Hamburg Süd.

The previous agreement used five 2,500 TEU ships and the ports that were included were Manzanillo, Lázaro Cárdenas, Port Quetzal, Corinto and Balboa among others.