The CKYH alliance of COSCO Container Lines, “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping said they were rationalizing their Far East/U.S. East Coast services effective in April.
The restructured services will include an eastbound around-the-world routing for one of the five Asia/U.S. East Coast loops the alliance operates, reviving a routing the container liner industry has not seen since 2002 when Evergreen Line abandoned its east and westbound round-the-world loops.
The AWE-4 service operated by the four carriers will have a port rotation of Singapore, Shekou, Hong Kong, Yantian, Norfolk, New York, Halifax and Singapore, and will employ eight or nine “K” Line vessels.
Yu Kurimoto, manager of the planning team for the container business group at “K” Line, said the AWE4 loop will definitely not run from Halifax to Singapore on its return leg via Panama Canal.
"We are still studying whether the ships will go via Suez or the Cape, but most probably it will be Suez. There will not be any stops in between," he said.
Yu Kurimoto confirmed that with a relatively slow-steaming service speed of 23 knots, eight ships could provide a weekly Asia/Panama/U.S. East Coast/Suez/Asia routing quite easily, but a ninth would be needed to go via the Cape.
The ships employed will all be Panamax size, with a nominal capacity of 4,500 TEUs, (or 3,850 TEUs when homogeneously loaded at 12 tons per TEU), he said.
He also confirmed that the U.S. East Coast/South East Asia leg effectively replaced the former SINA service, which had been terminated this winter during the seasonal slowdown in the container trade. (That service had been operated jointly by “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin-Senator, but not COSCO).
The CKYH Alliance said its service rationalization would enable them to provide customers with more comprehensive service covering most ports in the Far East and on the U.S. East Coast.
The alliance also said it was launching a new service, the AWE-5, which will use eight 3,300-TEU ships operated by Yang Ming and Hanjin in the following port rotation: Kaohsiung, Yantian, Shanghai, Pusan, New York, Norfolk, Savannah and Kaohsiung.
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