Evergreen Line is putting an end to its Asia-East Mediterranean (AEM) service as market conditions continue to force freight rates downwards.
The Taiwanese carrier only started the service last November although it has been running at reduced capacity for a number of months. In its most recent format, AEM operated with three ships averaging 2,842 TEUs on a rotation of Yantian, Hong Kong, Tanjung Pelepas, Haifa, Limassol, Piraeus, Istanbul, Port Said, Tanjung Pelepas and back to Yantian.
The last voyage, which includes calls at Shanghai and Ningbo as well as Ashdod instead of Haifa in Israel, will be made by LT Genova departing Shanghai on Sept. 9.
"The withdrawal of AEM service is part of a rationalization program to cope with the change in Far East/Mediterranean market," a spokesperson for Evergreen confirmed in an e-mail to Shippers' NewsWire.
Evergreen said that it would reorganize its other services in the trade to maintain the same service scope. In the Far East leg, both the ADR and UAM services offer the same port coverage as AEM. For the Mediterranean leg, the ADR service will add an extra call at Ashdod to cover Israel.
The UAM service will continue to serve Limassol, Piraeus and Istanbul via Taranto through dedicated feeders.
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