Carriers to merge Asia/Australia services

Carriers to merge Asia/Australia services    Hamburg Sud, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Shandong Yantai International Marine Shipping Container Co. (SYMS) will in November merge individual services in the Asia/Australia trade into one joint weekly loop using five 2,500 TEU ships.
   The joint service will have a port rotation of Hong Kong, Yantian, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Manila and back to Hong Kong.
   Hamburg Sud will provide two of the vessels while the three other carrier will each contribute one ship.
   “The lines will be upgrading their present service levels by improved transit times to and from main markets, by extending the scope of the service to include apart from North and South China also Korea, and by operating larger and more cost efficient vessels,” Hamburg Sud said in a statement.