The UK's P&O Ferries has chartered in a Dutch boxship for a new freight run to Zeebrugge.
Holwerda Shipmanagement's 658-teu Elisabeth (built 2000) will start the service from Hull on 3 May, it said.
The vessel will make three round-trips per week to complement the existing combined tourist and freight service between Hull and the Belgian port.
The two ships already serving the route underwent an £8.5m ($10.65m) relaunch earlier this year.
P&O Ferries managing director Janette Bell said: "We have designed this new freight service and our timetable around the needs of our customers, who have told us that reliability and the lowest possible terminal waiting times are vital to their businesses.
"We will carry all types of lift units on the new service including containers and swap bodies."
Bell is expecting demand for sea transport to and from Britain to increase in the years ahead, driven by a rising population and the continuing strength of the British economy.
Earlier this month P&O Ferries reported that it had carried more freight across the English Channel in the first three months of the year than in any first quarter in its modern history, with the company's six ships on the Dover-Calais route transporting 361,100 lorries - an 11% on the same period in 2016.
