New ocean services launched

Hanjin Shipping, Hamburg Süd, Tasman Orient Lines, Evergreen and APL have all announced new and/or adjusted services.

Hanjin Shipping, Hamburg Süd, Tasman Orient Lines, Evergreen and APL have all announced new and/or adjusted services. Hanjin Shipping will launch a new US East Coast - Mediterranean - Middle East - India (IMU) service on January 8th. This new IMU service is a combination of the current Mediterranean - India Express (MIX) service and the India - North America Express (INX) service.

The MIX service runs between the US East Coast, Mediterranean, Middle East and Indian Sub-continent with eleven 2,000 TEU vessels (nine from UASC, two from Hanjin). [This was UASC's MIX service]

The INX service, which terminated at end-December, operated between the US East Coast, South East Asia and Indian Sub-continent with eight vessels (two each from Hanjin, UASC, K-Line and Yang Ming). [This was UASC's SINA service]

The new IMU service will deploy nine 4,000 TEU vessels (six from UASC and three from Hanjin) on the following port rotation: Port Qasim > Nhava Sheva > Port Said > Med HUB > La Spezia > FOS > Barcelona > Valencia > MED HUB > New York > Norfolk > Savannah > Valencia > Genoa > Port Said > Jeddah > Khor Fakkan > Jebel Ali > Port Qasim. [This is UASC's MINA service]

Hanjin Shipping will also launch a new weekly service between the Far East and Red Sea on February 26th. 2009.

The new Red Sea (RES) service will deploy six 4,000 TEU vessels (three from Yang Ming, one each from Hanjin, K-Line and China Shipping) on the following port rotation: Shanghai > Ningbo > Shekou > Singapore > Jeddah > El Sokhna > Aqaba > Singapore > Shanghai

Hamburg Süd and Aliança have announced the following changes to the US Gulf - Central America - Caribbean - South America East Coast (UCLA) service.
String 1 will offer fast and direct connections between Brazil and Colombia, Mexico and the US Gulf with one of the best transit times in the market. The new rotation will be: Houston > Cartagena > Suape > Santos > Rio Grande > Navegantes > Paranaguá > Santos > Cartagena > Veracruz > Altamira > Houston.
String 2 will continue to offer direct calls at Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama, Mexico and Brazil. The rotation remains unchanged: Santos > Rio de Janeiro > Salvador > Puerto Cabello > Cartagena > Santo Tomas de Castilla > Havana > Veracruz > Altamira > Manzanillo > Cartagena > Puerto Cabello > Santos.

The Venezuelan port of La Guaira will continue to be serviced via Cartagena (Colombia) through a dedicated feeder service run by Hamburg Süd. Furthermore, all Central America and Caribbean destinations are serviced via a comprehensive feeder network connecting in Cartagena.

Tasman Orient Line has announced a number of service changes that will take place early in the New Year, including the re-allocation of some ports across the trades and the integration of the two East and South East Asia northbound services into a single loop.

North Asia (multipurpose service): Kaohsiung and Taichung calls will switch from the East Asia service to be covered by the North Asia service. This will come into effect from the Tasman Trader V210904 (northbound) and V240905 (southbound) in mid-February.

East - South East Asia (multipurpose service): The clockwise South East Asia loop will be integrated into the East Asia counter-clockwise loop. The new service will operate with six vessels, and the northbound service frequency will increase from the current fifteen days to ten days.

Northbound - the Tasman Mariner V110902 (previously V410903) departing New Zealand in mid-February will be the last vessel on the current SEA northbound rotation. The revised EA-SEA northbound rotation will come into effect with the Tasman Independence V110908 (previously V110905) also in mid February.
Southbound - the revised rotation and ten-day frequency of the EA-SEA will come into effect on January 19th with the Tasman Independence V140905 at Bangkok.

The revised service port rotations will be:

North Asia service: Auckland > Tauranga > Wellington > Keelung > Taichung > Kaohsiung > Busan > Osaka > Yokohama > Noumea > Auckland.

East - South East Asia service: Auckland > New Plymouth > Wellington > Timaru > Tauranga > Marsden Point > Subic Bay > Hong Kong > Ho Chi Minh > Jakarta > Sri Racha (Thailand) > Singapore > Noumea > Lautoka > Suva > Auckland.

North Asia weekly service: Tauranga > Auckland (via Metroport) > Lyttelton > New Plymouth > Yokohama > Kobe > Shanghai > Hong Kong > Brisbane > Tauranga.

Evergreen Line and Sea Consortium launched the new combined weekly service - the Arabian Express (ASX) Service on December 27th.

The new joint ASX service port rotation is: Colombo > Kandla > Mundra > Karachi > Nhava Sheva > Colombo.

APL will route its Central America service through the Port of Miami from this month. APL's Central America Express (CAX) service and its companion CX2 service will move from Port Everglades to Miami on January 6th.

Miami will be the only US port of call for the service that connects Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador with APL's major European and Latin American trade routes.

The twice-weekly CAX is one of three APL services reaching Central America. By routing through Miami, shippers using the CAX service can connect to APL's Atlantic Pacific Express and Atlantic North service for shipments to and from Europe. They can also use Miami to link up with APL's New York Express for other major ports of call in Latin America as well as Asia.

APL's switch in ports will enable shippers to benefit from increased cargo-handling efficiency: Miami recently opened an automated 16-lane gate to speed up traffic at the port. Truck turnaround times at the port have averaged just thirty minutes - one of the best performance records of any US port.

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