Lykes Lines completes fleet upgrade on Africa service

The introduction of the Lykes Runner on August 29 will complete the re-tonnaging of Lykes Lines’ North America – Africa Service, East Coast Loop.

The multi-purpose Astrakan Mark 3 ro-ro ship joins four sister ships already on the service, operating every two weeks between Canada, the U.S. and South Africa. They all can carry breakbulk, bulk and container traffic, including refrigerated cargo, as well as automobiles, trucks and other rolling stock.

“With the introduction of the Lykes Raider in June and the Lykes Runner next week, we now have five identical ships, making scheduling of traffic easier,” says Morten Veflingstad, Vice President Commercial, Multi-Purpose Services. “These multi-purpose ships are particularly well-suited to the mix of traffic both northbound and southbound.

The other three ships on this service are the Lykes Winner, Lykes Inspirer and Lykes Energizer.

The East Coast Loop service calls at Montreal, Philadelphia, Charleston, Cape Town, Durban, Cape Town, Philadelphia and Montreal. Hamilton and Toronto are added during the Lakes season (April-Dec).

Lykes Lines also offers a Gulf Loop Service between Africa and North America, again operated with multi-purpose ships.

The Gulf Loop operates monthly, northbound only, calling Durban, Cape Town, Salvador, New Orleans, Houston and Veracruz, with inducement calls at other ports in South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, the Caribbean and North America.