Sante Shipping Lines is launching cargo service Saturday with twice-a-month trips from the Miami River to Haiti's northern cities of Cap Haitien and Gonaives. It will use a ship that can carry the equivalent of 181 20-foot trailers, said President Chuck Towsley, the former chief of Miami's largest seaport.

Towsley said Sante Shipping aims to fill a niche serving smaller ports with direct service. It plans to add barge early next year that would transport goods from its container vessel to even smaller ports in Haiti. Plans also call for building roll-on, roll-off barges to serve Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos Islands and the southern Bahamas, among other sites in the greater Caribbean, the company said.

-- SUN SENTINEL