Grupo Sousa, Portugal’s largest liner operator, has acquired another feeder vessel as part of a restructuring of its container shipping division.

The 679-teu Rebecca S (built 2007) will replace a chartered vessel — the 698-teu Pantonio (built 2007) — on services between Portugal and the island of Madeira.

The acquisition comes as part of a merger of Grupo Sousa’s container shipping operations.

The Madeira-based company’s shipowning division — Portusline Container International — is being merged into its liner shipping operation, GS Lines.

The merged entity will operate Portuguese-related services with nine owned or chartered containerships between 375 teu and 1,577 teu.

The Rebecca S is one of two ships recently sold by Germany’s Briese Schiffahrt.

The Leer-based owner is also understood to have sold the 518-teu multipurpose containership Lomur (built 2002) to Crystal Alliance, a Vladivostok-based maritime and multimodal transport group.

The vessel has being renamed Crystal Vladivostok and operates under the Russian flag.

Alphaliner suggests the ship will be used by Crystal Alliance Shipping Lines, a recently established liner service connecting Vladivostok with the Kuril Islands and the South Korean port of Busan.