Famous Five Shipping Lines Team-up for North Asia-Oz Trade
03.10.2008 (13:24)
APL, Hamburg Sud, Hapag-Lloyd and Hyundai Merchant Marine have teamed up with Evergreen to provide a new north east Asia to Australia service from late October, Hong Kong Shipping Gazette reports.The new alliance added that the move was brought about by "significant cost increases and very poor freight rates both south- and northbound".
The group of four AAS partners (Asia Australia Services) together with Evergreen will jointly provide "one of the most comprehensive service networks in the trade with two fixed-day weekly loops," said a joint statement.
All vessels now deployed in Evergreen's TCA service will no longer trade on the north-east Asia to Australia route. Evergreen will instead purchase slots on the AAS southern loop from the fourth week of this month.
While the above two loop system will allow the lines to offer better port coverage in Asia and some of the fastest transit times in the trade the cooperation will result in a net capacity reduction equivalent to 800 TEU per week or 3.2 per cent of total trade capacity, said a joint statement.
Northern loop rotation will be: Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and back to Yokohama. The rotation on the southern loop will be: Kaohsiung, Yantian, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and back to Kaohsiung.
The service will be operated with five modern 3,500 TEU nominal vessels (AAS Northern Loop) and four modern 2,500 TEU nominal vessels (AAS Southern Loop). Hamburg Sud will provide three, Hyundai and APL two vessels each while Hapag-Lloyd and Evergreen will supply one vessel each.
Under the scheme, Evergreen will become a vessel provider in the AAS northern loop. From the fourth week of October - subject to Australian and Japanese legal requirements - Evergreen will have fixed space allocation on the AAS northern loop.
Evergreen's own 3,500-TEU ship will be phased into the AAS northern loop in the fourth week of November. In exchange, Evergreen will discontinue its current TCA service. The last southbound sailing of the TCA service will take place in the third week of October.
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