With capacity tight and demand strong on the trans-Pacific trade, the world’s three largest container lines are restoring a joint service to the U.S. West Coast that they had suspended last October.
Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM all announced separately that they would put the vessel-sharing agreement back into service as of July 10, adding a total capacity of 39,000 20-foot equivalent units to the trade in time for peak season.
The service, which Maersk calls the TP2, MSC the Eagle Service and CMA CGM the Yang Tse service , will consist of six 6,500-TEU vessels, of which MSC will deploy three, Maersk Line two and CMA CGM one.
The VSA will cover the following port rotation on the eastbound leg: Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Hong Kong, China; Xiamen, China; Shanghai, China; Qingdao, China; and Long Beach, California.
The westbound rotation will be Long Beach, California; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Hong Kong, China; Xiamen, China; Shanghai, China; and Qingdao, China.
The first call of the joint service will take place on July, 10 with the departure of the MSC Luisa from Xiamen.
The Journal of Commerce Online