From American Shipper:

The Danish ocean carrier will join Hapag-Lloyd’s JMCSA service from Mediterranean ports to Montreal in September, just as Europe and Canada initiate the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Maersk Line will add a new service to its transatlantic network just as a free trade deal between Canada and Europe is initiated, the company said in a statement.
The Danish ocean carrier will join service operator Hapag-Lloyd and slot purchaser CMA CGM on the JMCSA service from Mediterranean ports to Montreal on Sept. 30. The port rotation will begin in Sagunto and vessels will sail to Cagliari, Salerno, Leghorn, Genoa, Marseilles-Fos, Algeciras, Tanger Morocco, Vigo, Montreal, Tanger and back to Sagunto.
The service is one of two others in the Mediterranean to North America trade lane. Both additional services are operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), Maersk’s partner in the 2M Alliance vessel sharing agreement, according to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting.
Europe and Canada recently signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) to eliminate European tariffs on key Canadian exports while phasing in free-market access on other products, according to the media source The Globe and Mail.
“Our service is a reflection of our confidence in Canada’s position amongst the world’s trading countries,” said Jack Mahoney, president of Maersk Line Canada, in an interview. “We’re looking at CETA as supporting that initiative. We do want to make it even easier for Canada to reach the world.”
Mahoney said that Maersk has seen its Canadian volumes grow by 15 percent this year due to strong demand for domestic grain, meat and wood. The bilateral trade deal between Canada and the 28-member European region “should spur even greater growth,” he said.
The International Monetary Fund in July said Canada’s 2017 economic growth will be the strongest of the G7 countries. Canada’s domestic economy will expand by 2.5 percent this year and by 1.9 percent in 2018, the IMF said, lagging global-growth forecasts but outpacing U.S. expansion, reported The Globe and Mail.
Mahoney said the current balance of available ships and economic growth is “the healthiest since 2010,” and consolidation has stabilized the industry. Maersk Line recently posted strong second quarter earnings and intentionally-moderate volume growth, despite the cyber-attack that plagued the Danish shipping company and other European firms earlier this year.