Trade between Mexico and Florida just became easier and more cost efficient thanks to a new weekly container shipping service that began this month.

Linea Peninsular launched its new weekly, fixed-day container service which calls Port Tampa Bay every Tuesday to and from the ports of Altamira and Progreso, Mexico. A quick two and a half day transit from northern Mexico and a two-day transit to the Yucatan peninsula provides companies with a new option for delivering product to market in a quick and cost effective manner.

In addition to offering container service, including refrigerated containers, the service can also accommodate breakbulk and project cargoes.

“Linea Peninsular enjoys a well-deserved reputation as the premiere ocean carrier between Mexico and the United States, having provided reliable and quality service in this trade for over 32 years,” said Paul Anderson, CEO of Port Tampa Bay. “Mexico is already one of Port Tampa Bay’s top trading partners and we see significant potential to expand our containerized business with Mexico, including for such commodities as food and beverage products, consumer goods and construction and building materials.”

“We have wanted to add Port Tampa Bay to our rotation for quite some time,” added David Humphreys, CEO of Linea Peninsular. “The large consumer market in the Tampa Bay I-4 corridor market has become the primary distribution center hub for Florida. Customers have been pushing us to add a Tampa call and the response has been great. We also see lots of potential to assist companies who are currently trucking their business between Mexico and Florida and to help them save money and transit time by converting to the safety and security of an all-water delivery.”

Port Tampa Bay and terminal operator partner Ports America recently commissioned two new neopanamax container gantry cranes and have a phased build-out plan to quadruple of the size of its container facilities to over 160 acres.