Hamburg-Sud and Mediterranean Shipping Co will merge their Mediterranean-East Coast South America services in January, cutting capacity in a bid to boost flagging freight rates.
“In view of continuous poor trading conditions” the carriers said they will fuse the two services into a common service with eight ships of each with a nominal capacity of 5,900 20-foot equivalent units.
MSC will provide seven vessels while Hamburg-Sud will deploy the eighth ship. The merger of services comes on the heels of major consolidation on the Asia-Europe trade lanes, and a vessel-sharing agreement involving five carriers, including Hamburg Sud, on the Asia-South America trade lane.
The new port rotation is: Valencia, Gioia Tauro, Livorno, Genoa, [Marseille] Fos, Barcelona, Valencia, Suape, Rio de Janiero, Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio Grande, Navegantes, Itapúa, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Suape, Tangier and back to Valencia.
Hamburg-Sud said the new service will provide more comprehensive port coverage in South America and will connect to its network to eastern Mediterranean and Middle East destinations via the German carrier's Tangier hub.
The Journal of Commerce Online
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