Tag: <span>Container Liners</span>

CMA CGM and Maersk will become the latest carriers to launch a joint Asia-East Coast South America (ECSA) service with a semi-express loop that is specifically targeting the significant trade growth between Brazil and Vietnam.

The move follows a tie-up between HMM and Ocean Network Express (ONE) that will see the two carriers begin an express service linking Busan and South China with Brazil.

Both the CMA CGM/Maersk and HMM/ONE connections will begin in April, just as container freight rates are anticipated to rise, according to one Brazilian-based freight forwarder.

 

CMA CGM said its Asia-South America East Coast 3 (SEAS3) service — known as the ASAS2 for Maersk — will provide a “unique service from Vietnam” while also streamlining shipments between Asia and Brazil with the limited number of port calls improving transit times.

This is the first time CMA CGM and Maersk have teamed up on an Asia-ECSA service. Their separate existing services involve multiple ports calls in Asia and South America, including Argentina and Uruguay.

Maersk said there will be a 37-day transit from Shanghai to Santos, 33 days from Shekou (Shenzhen) to Santos, and 29 days from Vung Tau to Santos, Latin America’s largest port.

CMA CGM is providing seven vessels with a nominal capacity of 6,500 TEUs, while Maersk is deploying four ships on the service.

The full rotation is Shanghai-Shekou-Vung Tau-Singapore-Santos-Singapore-Shanghai.

 

ONE and HMM will start their joint Asia-ECSA service in April from Busan, also with limited port calls to enhance transit times. The rotation is Busan–South China–Singapore–Rio Grande–Santos–Santa Catarina–Singapore–Hong Kong–Busan.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2025, March 5). CMA CGM, Maersk become latest to launch Joint Express Asia-ECSA SERVICE. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/cma-cgm-maersk-become-latest-to-launch-joint-express-asia-ecsa-service-5956746

Taiwan’s Yang Ming Marine Transport will order up to 13 container ships as part of fleet optimization plans approved by the carrier’s directors Friday to replace aging vessels and expand the fleet of owned ships.

The new ships will vary in size between 8,000 TEUs and 15,000 TEUs and are likely meant for deployment on longer-haul intra-Asia and mainline east-west services.

The newbuilds are part of Yang Ming’s efforts to “optimize [our] service network and enhance fleet competitiveness,” the carrier said in a statement.

The vessels will replace 5,500- and 6,500-TEU ships that are more than 20 years old, the carrier said. Yang Ming currently operates six of that class that are 20 years and older, with a further five ships that will reach that milestone when the new vessels are likely delivered.

Yang Ming said it will evaluate energy-saving technologies and study clean energy fuel options for likely use in the new ships before orders are placed with shipyards. The ships will allow the carrier to “provide customers worldwide with more environmentally friendly transportation solutions,” it said.

The carrier gave no details of the cost or likely delivery dates of the new ships. But the fleet renewal plan comes as Yang Ming is expecting an increase both in the number of services and frequency of sailings once its Premier Alliance partnership is launched with Ocean Network Express (ONE) and HMM in February.

Yang Ming said the number of services will increase by three to 28 with new loops from Asia to Europe, Mediterranean and Pacific Southwest, while the frequency will also increase on those trades.

The carrier has also announced a raft of new services in the last few weeks. These include an India Ocean Express (ISE) service announced Friday connecting western India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan to North Europe. It will be operated in partnership with HMM and inaugurated on Feb. 5.

Yang Ming said last week it would begin a China-Thailand Express (CTE) service with OOCL from early January to strengthen their competitiveness in the intra-Asia market.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024, December 20). Yang Ming to order slate of new container ships in move to upgrade fleet. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/yang-ming-to-order-slate-of-new-container-ships-in-move-to-upgrade-fleet-5909702

Wan Hai Lines is planning to expand its trans-Pacific network after agreeing to a slot exchange deal with Ocean Network Express (ONE) on the latter’s Pacific South 6 service linking China with Long Beach and Oakland, the Taiwanese carrier said. The slot exchange will begin in February.

The launch date coincides with the start of services by the Premier Alliance formed by ONE, HMM and Yang Ming Marine Transport to replace THE Alliance following the departure of Hapag-Lloyd to join Maersk in the Gemini Cooperation.

While the launch of the Premier Alliance is now in abeyance after the US Federal Maritime Commission’s (FMC’s) announcement Friday that it will stop the partnership from going ahead while it seeks further information to assess the competitive impact, the three carriers can continue their THE Alliance group. The FMC’s agreement with THE Alliance does not expire until April 1, 2030, FMC documents show.

The port rotation given by Wan Hai reflects ONE’s existing PS6 service with calls at Shanghai-Ningbo-Long Beach-Oakland-Shanghai-Ningbo. Wan Hai said the PS6 service will “provide a direct connection from Asia to the US West Coast,” with an express 16- to 18-day transit from Shanghai to Southern California.

It will augment Wan Hai’s two existing services — its trans-Pacific West Coast AP1 service and its around-the-world US East Coast-Asia-America 7 service.

Due to the new PS6 loop, Wan Hai said it will amend the rotation of its AP1 service by dropping Shanghai and Ningbo beginning in February to improve transit times for customers in Vietnam, Taiwan and southern China. The new rotation will be Haiphong-Cai Mep (Vietnam)-Shekou-Xiamen-Taipei-Los Angeles-Oakland-Shekou-Haiphong.

Both the PS6 slot exchange and AP1 service changes are part of Wan Hai’s 2025 trans-Pacific service improvements.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024a, December 9). Wan Hai to expand US Trans-Pacific Services with one slot charter deal. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/wan-hai-to-expand-us-trans-pacific-services-with-one-slot-charter-deal-5878644

Gemini Cooperation, the new Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd alliance, will open cargo bookings beginning Dec. 3, two months before the official Feb. 1 launch of the network, Hapag-Lloyd confirmed Wednesday.

February voyages will be available when the booking portal opens, the carrier said in a customer advisory.

“As our 2025 network will be fully phased in only after the transition from our current THE Alliance network during 2025, not all Gemini Cooperation voyages might be reflected in our schedule yet,” Hapag-Lloyd said.

The carrier’s online schedules only cover vessel arrivals at the destination port up to the end of January, just before Hapag-Lloyd’s membership in THE Alliance ends.

Gemini will provide 56 mainline and shuttle services covering seven east-west trades on a hub-and-spoke network and utilizing about 340 vessels with a total capacity of 3.7 million TEUs.

The Gemini carriers have continued to tweak the network after releasing the final schedule on Oct. 9, which reflected their decision to choose the Cape of Good Hope option for vessel routings to avoid the threat of militant attacks in the Red Sea. The latest change, announced on Nov. 18, was to shift calls from the UK’s Felixstowe port to London Gateway on three Asia-Europe services.

MSC updates east-west network

The news from Gemini came as Mediterranean Shipping Co. released on Wednesday the latest update to its standalone east-west network that will launch in February. The changes feature extra port calls to “optimize our Asia to Europe, US and Canada connectivity,” the carrier said in a customer advisory.

The biggest difference is MSC’s Mustang service connecting Asia to the Northwest US and Canada will be added to its standalone east-west network. The new rotation will be Xiamen–Yantian–Ningbo–Shanghai–Busan–Seattle–Vancouver–Portland–Busan.

Other changes include the addition of calls at Vung Tau and Haiphong in Vietnam on MSC’s Pearl and Chinook services; Nansha on its Asia-Europe Lion and Dragon services; Yantian (westbound) and Yokohama in place of Busan on its Swan-Sentosa service; and Busan (westbound) on its Asia-US Orient and Lonestar services.

MSC has also added a call at Vizhinjam in India on its Asia-Europe Jade service, with Colombo also added to both its Britannia service connecting Asia and North Europe and its eastbound America service between the US East Coast and Asia.

MSC’s Albatross service will now feature two calls in the UK, with London Gateway added after Felixstowe, which will remain the first call in Europe from Asia.

MSC said its standalone east-west network together with its existing Asia export services will “provide unmatched continental trade connectivity with Asia through a vast array of loops, competitive transit times and a high frequency of direct port calls.”

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024, November 27). Hapag-Lloyd says Gemini Alliance cargo bookings to open Dec. 3. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/hapag-lloyd-says-gemini-alliance-cargo-bookings-to-open-dec-3-5846853

The Premier Alliance is upgrading a raft of its proposed services just weeks after announcing its trade network ahead of its February 2025 launch.

The group, comprising Ocean Network Express (ONE), HMM and Yang Ming Marine Transport, said the changes apply to two trans-Pacific services and an Asia-Mediterranean service.

The Premier partnership will replace THE Alliance when Hapag-Lloyd leaves to join Maersk in the Gemini Cooperation.

The biggest change to the original Premier network is its decision to split the Pacific North 3 loop linking Asia with the Pacific Northwest into two distinct services, PN3 and PN4. “This enhancement aims to provide faster transit times and improve schedule integrity and reliability,” ONE said in a customer advisory on Wednesday.

The alterations reduce the number of eastbound port calls to four for each service compared with six calls in the original PN3 schedule.

“Separation into two services will improve the transit times from the Chinese ports, especially from Qingdao,” Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime and a Journal of Commerce analyst, said in a LinkedIn post Thursday.

The revised PN3 rotation is Qingdao, Busan, Vancouver, Tacoma, Busan and Qingdao with a 15-day transit between Qingdao and Vancouver and 11 days from Busan to Vancouver. The rotation of the new PN4 service is Ningbo, Shanghai, Vancouver, Tacoma and Ningbo with 16 days from Ningbo to Vancouver and a 12-day journey between Shanghai and Vancouver.

The final upgrade is Premier’s move to add Jacksonville to its trans-Pacific East Coast North America 2 (EC2) service. The revised rotation is Xiamen, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Busan, Manzanillo (Panama), Savannah, Charleston, Jacksonville, Manzanillo, Busan and Xiamen.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024, October 17). Premier alliance enhances network ahead of February launch. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/premier-alliance-enhances-network-ahead-of-february-launch-5751123

Cargo owners’ need to plan Asia-Europe shipments for next year was behind Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd discarding the Suez Canal as an option when their new Gemini Cooperation network launches on Feb. 1 next year.

In the clearest signal yet that the carriers do not anticipate a return to Red Sea transits next year, and with shippers already preparing their 2025 contracts, Gemini decided to jettison the shorter route from its network and commit to the longer transit around southern Africa.

When the Suez routings are deemed safe from Houthi rebel attacks, the shift by ocean carriers will bring ‘havoc’ to container shipping schedules, said Maersk CCO Karsten Kildahl. Until then, Maersk customers needed lead time certainty so they can plan operations.

“The nightmare operation when the canal closed is nothing compared to what it is going to look like when it opens again,” Kildahl told reporters Wednesday at the naming ceremony of the dual-fuel Alexandra Maersk in Felixstowe.

“We will have several weeks of something that will look like an operational meltdown. It is not going to be smooth.”

When Gemini unveiled its updated network in September, the alliance offered Asia-Europe shippers alternative routings via the Cape of Good Hope and the Suez Canal. However, Maersk told customers in an advisory this week that the Red Sea situation remained “highly dynamic” and that Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd would only return to the route “when it is safe to do so.”

”The reality is that there are still attacks in the Red Sea and it is unsafe to be there. We have seen in the past that it looked safe, and carriers tried to go through, but it wasn’t safe and had to be undone again. You can’t just flip flop,” he said.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Knowler, G. (2024, October 10). Maersk rules out Suez Canal routings for Gemini Launch. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/maersk-rules-out-suez-canal-routings-for-gemini-launch-5746470

Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s ability to roll out a standalone east-west ocean network able to compete with the reshaped alliances, and to offer both Red Sea and Suez Canal service options, indicates the immense scale the carrier has built over the last few years.

The world’s largest container carrier will exit its 2M Alliance with Maersk that expires in January next year, and in preparation for its new direction unveiled this week a comprehensive network coverage plan, coupled with two slot-swap agreements, that MSC described as “independent, competitive and complete.”

With a fleet capacity of 6 million TEUs at its disposal and another 2 million TEUs on the order book the Geneva-based carrier will deploy its vessels on services across the major trade lanes, using strategic slot-sharing deals to plug any loopholes.

“We are announcing a comprehensive standalone network and coupling with that two slot swaps [with the new Premier Alliance and Zim Integrated Shipping Services],” MSC CEO Soren Toft told the Journal of Commerce this week.

“We believe we can give a better extended product than being 100% on our own,” he added.

MSC will provide the independent network beginning in February, wielding “full operational control” over 34 loops across five trades: Asia-North America West Coast (four), Asia-North America East Coast (six), Asia-Europe (seven), Asia-Mediterranean (six) and trans-Atlantic (11).

The carrier will offer customers separate routings via the Suez Canal and the Cape of Good Hope, providing over 1,900 direct port pairs on the Suez option and over 1,800 around southern Africa.

Toft said the Red Sea and Suez options for Asia-Europe, Asia-Med and Asia-East Coast were included to cover fourth-quarter contract negotiations on the trade lanes, although he did not expect any change in the Red Sea situation by the time the new network is rolled out in February.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Knowler, G. (2024, September 12). MSC’s Global Scale enables standalone network coverage. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/mscs-global-scale-enables-standalone-network-coverage-5726563

 

The structure of the global container shipping alliance next year is set for a further shake-up after MSC unveiled its new standalone east-west service network and revealed it has concluded a vessel-sharing agreement (VSA) with THE Alliance, covering nine Asia-Europe services

The pivot point is February 2025, when the 2M partnership of MSC and Maersk is set to disband, while at the same time Hapag-Lloyd will depart THE Alliance to form the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk – at which point, the remaining three THE Alliance carriers – ONE, Yang Ming and HMM – will rebrand as the Premier Alliance and enter into a slot-share agreement with MSC covering the Asia-Europe trades.

In a parallel development, MSC has also signed a three-year VSA with Zim on the transpacific trade.

“We are very pleased to announce this new strategic partnership with MSC, who is the leading carrier in the Asia-Europe trade,” ONE chief executive Jeremy Nixon said.

“Collectively, the Premier Alliance and MSC, will be able to offer a very capable and extensive network of end-to-end port services to its customers from February 2025.

“We look forward to this new cooperation with MSC, and both collaborating on our respective joint operational expertise and combined network synergies,” he added.

Meanwhile, today also saw Israeli carrier ZIM announce that it and MSC had concluded a vessel-sharing agreement on the Asia-North America east coast trade.

In concert with the agreement, the Premier Alliance carriers published their new network for 2025, and MSC did likewise, including the remaining deepsea trades where it intends to continue as a standalone carrier.

According to ONE, the Premier Alliance members are set to offer six transpacific services into the US Pacific South-west, and three into the Pacific north-west range, as well as four Asia-North America east coast services.

In a related development, MSC and Zim have signed a three-year VSA agreement between Asia and the North America east and Gulf coast services, covering MSC’s six services on the trade – the America/Z7S, Emerald/ZXB, Empire/ZNS, Amberjack/ZCP, Lone Star/ZGC, and Pelican/ZSL, while Zim’s two transpacific express services between China and California will remain independent.

“This important collaboration reflects ZIM’s commitment to both delivering an outstanding shipping solution to its customers, and taking continuous proactive steps to enhance efficiencies in our network,” Zim president and chief executive Eli Glickman said.

“It is the direct outcome of our fleet renewal programme which has greatly enhanced Zim’s competitive position, particularly on the Asia to US East Coast trade.

“We are pleased to, once again, join forces with MSC, an industry leader and Zim’s long-standing trusted partner, to augment our network while upholding our customer-centric approach and commitment to the highest levels of service,” he added.

Details please refer to the Loadstar news.

Source:

Marle, G. van. (2024, September 9). New strings attached – shipping shapes up for 2025 with Premier Alliance launch. The Loadstar. https://theloadstar.com/new-strings-attached-shape-up-for-2025-with-premier-alliance-launch/

 

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is reintroducing a trans-Pacific service to the US East Coast that had been suspended in 2022, the second service the carrier has reinstated on the trade lane this year as Asia-US ocean freight rates have surged and Panama Canal restrictions have eased.

MSC said Wednesday its Liberty service to the East Coast will resume with the departure of the 4,432-TEU MSC Houston V from Singapore on Aug. 8. Along with Singapore, other Asia load ports include Shanghai and Busan. The US port rotation includes Miami, Savannah, Charleston, Philadelphia and New York-New Jersey.

MSC said in a statement that “ongoing robust demand in the trans-Pacific market” prompted the reintroduction of the Liberty service, with the loop’s new call at Philadelphia “responding directly to current market demands.”

The Liberty service had previously been run jointly with Maersk under the 2M Alliance. Introduced during the pandemic, MSC and Maersk suspended the service in late 2022 due to the sharp drop in ocean freight rates during that year.

This will be the second trans-Pacific service MSC has restored this year. In June, the carrier reintroduced its Mustang service with a port rotation that includes China’s major ports and Long Beach. The Mustang service had previously called Portland on the US West Coast.

Liberty’s reinstatement comes as the Panama Canal’s transit and draft limits have eased following the return of seasonal rains that have filled the reservoirs for the canal’s locks. The canal handled an average of 29 ships per day in June, up from an average of 22 in January.

Despite having the largest order book among ocean carriers, MSC has deployed most of its new ships to the Asia-Europe trade in response to strong demand there and the longer voyage times around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. According to Bespoke Maritime Data Services, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global, MSC has deployed just two newbuild, 7,900-TEU ships on its trans-Pacific Emerald service to the US East Coast, the MSC Cotonou VIII and the MSC Tema.

Other carriers also added trans-Pacific capacity as rates from Asia surged in recent months. Zim Integrated Shipping Services began offering a premium shuttle service to Los Angeles along with another Asia service to Vancouver. Cosco Shipping and OOCL have also launched services to Long Beach and Vancouver.

Wan Hai Lines has also relaunched its AA1 service into Long Beach, while HMM restarted its PN3 service to the Pacific Northwest. Niche carrier Hede International has also introduced a feeder-size service to the US West Coast.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024, July 24). MSC restores Trans-Pacific Liberty Service with new call at Philadelphia. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/msc-restores-trans-pacific-liberty-service-new-call-philadelphia_20240724.html