Nansha–Sihanoukville Direct Sailings Densify: RCL's RSK3 Launched 16 October, OOCL Follows Ten Days Later

2026-10-17 / Service network

One corridor, two carriers within ten days

RCL's new RSK3 service sailed for the first time from Nansha on 16 October. Two 1,100 TEU ships — MTT Saisunee and MTT Senari — run a fixed 14-day round trip: Nansha to Shekou, on to Sihanoukville in Cambodia, then Songkhla in Thailand, and back to Nansha. The port schedule is tightly drawn: Nansha on Fridays, Shekou Saturdays, Sihanoukville arriving Thursday and departing Friday, Songkhla Saturday to Sunday. Ten days later, OOCL's China–Cambodia–Thailand CCT4 service starts on 23 October; Drewry's 15 October weekly report confirms the same rotation of Nansha, Shekou, Sihanoukville and Songkhla. Two carriers, near-identical port calls — both are clearly betting on the same corridor.

Why Sihanoukville and Songkhla

Sihanoukville is Cambodia's only deep-sea port, and the manufacturing that has shifted there in recent years — garments, footwear, tyres, bicycles — all sails out through it. Songkhla is the distribution hub of southern Thailand, where rubber and electronics concentrate. Cargo from South China bound for the Thai south used to go by sea to Laem Chabang and then overland, or by road the whole way — neither cheap nor fast. Direct calls cut the transhipment leg entirely. RCL's own wording is blunt: fewer intermediate stops, end-to-end connectivity between South China, Sihanoukville and Songkhla within a single 14-day cycle.

The westbound land route is densifying too

While sea capacity grows, the land corridor is moving as well. On 16 October the first "Zheng He + rail express" sea-rail-road multimodal train departed Kunming's Tengjun International Land Port, Yunnan.cn reported on 17 October. Vegetables, chemicals and steel cleared declaration and inspection in one stop at the land port's new customs supervision site, then travel down the China–Laos railway to Vientiane, by road to Thailand's Ranong port, and by sea to Myanmar. Customs puts the clearance time saving at more than 24 hours, two days faster than the conventional Zheng He routing, with per-container costs down by over 500 yuan.

Shipping to Cambodia or southern Thailand? Ask one more question this week

For cargo bound for Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville, ask which vessel and voyage your quote is on — space on a new service's early sailings is usually negotiable. A stable direct option into Songkhla simply did not exist before; if you have cargo for the Thai south, it is worth trialling one sailing to see the transit time for yourself.