China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) and Taiwan's Evergreen Group have signed an agreement in Shanghai to jointly operate two services on the Asia-Europe and Asia-Mexico-US East Coast trade lanes and share slots on two Asia-US West Coast services, effective from mid-June.
This development represents a strengthening of cross-strait ties following the opening of a direct shipping link between China and Taiwan after more than half a century.
"With the benefits of slot-sharing arrangements and joint services, we expect both China Shipping and Evergreen to see upgraded service coverage and more efficiently utilised capacity on the crucial Asia-Europe and Asia-America trades," the carriers said in a joint statement.
Both carriers will jointly cooperate on a new China to North Europe (AEX1) service that deploys eight 8,000TEU ships. The first to be operated with the partnership in place will be the 'Xin Hong Kong', voyage number: 0029W, which is to depart from Qingdao on June 17.
The new AEX1 service will replace CSCL's current Far East – Mediterranean – North Europe AEX 1 service, with a number of port changes, while Evergreen's CEM service is also expected to be superseded by this new service.
The port rotation for the new AEX1 is: Qingdao – Shanghai – Ningbo – Yantian – Felixstowe – Hamburg – Rotterdam – Zeebrugge – Hong Kong – Qingdao.
Furthermore, both carriers will cooperate on the Asia-Mexico-US east coast (AAE1) service that deploys eight 4,000TEU vessels. The first vessel to be deployed under the new arrangement will be the 'Ital Laguna', voyage 0001-019E, which is schedule to set sail from Shanghai on June 15.
The port rotation for the new AAE1 will be the same as CSCL's current AAE1 service, with the addition of a port of call in Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico.
The new service stops at: Shanghai – Hong Kong – Yantian – Lazaro Cardenas – New York – Norfolk – Savannah – Miami – Lazaro Cardenas – Shanghai.
The AAE 1 was previously operated as a joint service between CSCL and CMA CGM, which was dissolved following the launch of the new CMA CGM/Maersk Columbus/TP-3/TP-9′ loop in May.
In addition, the two container shipping lines will share slots on the Asia /US Pacific south east coast route.
CSCL is said to be upgrading its north/central China to US west coast (AAC) service by replacing the five ships of 5,600TEU currently deployed on the service with five vessels of around 8,000TEU.
The earlier calls at Nansha and Yantian made by CSCL will be replaced by new port of calls in Qingdao and Lianyungang.
The first vessel affected by this development will be the 'Xin Ou Zhou', voyage 0020E, which is expected to depart from Qingdao on June 16. The port rotation for the new AAC is: Qingdao – Lianyungang – Shanghai – Ningbo – Busan – Los Angeles – Oakland – Qingdao.
Meanwhile, Evergreen is revising its Hong Kong, Taiwan-US west coast (HTW) service by replacing its five ships of 4,000 to 5,300TEU with five ships of 8,000TEU, and it is dropping the Tacoma call and starting one in Oakland instead.
The first vessel to set sail under the arrangements of the new HTW service will be the 'Ever Champion', voyage 0571-027E, that is due to depart from Kaohsiung June 16 on the following port rotation: Kaohsiung – Xiamen – Hong Kong – Shenzhen (Yantian) – Los Angeles – Oakland – Kaohsiung.
Tracey Jia