Ocean Alliance scales back on Asia-Mideast trade

Loops will be reduced from five to four at the end of July.    The Ocean Alliance — comprised of CMA CGM, APL, OOCL, COSCO and Evergreen Line — is decreasing its number of loops on the Asia-Middle East trade from five to four at the end of July.
   The carriers will merge two of their loops into a new loop, which will have a rotation of Tianjin, Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shekou, Singapore, Sohar, Jebel Ali, Hamad, Dammam, Jubail, Singapore and Tianjin, according to press releases issued by CMA CGM and OOCL. CMA CGM will refer to this merged loop as the CIMEX1, while OOCL will call it the ME1.
   CMA CGM’s online proforma shows the merged loop will deploy seven vessels averaging 10,385 TEUs, based on the average vessel size of the four vessels shown on the proforma. The loops that will be merged have current rotations of:
     • Tianjin, Dalian, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore, Khor Fakkan, Dubai, Sohar, Port Kelang, Singapore, Shekou and Tianjin (called CIMEX1 by CMA CGM, ME1 by OOCL, AMA by Evergreen, MEX4 by COSCO and GAX by APL, according to BlueWater Reporting);
     • And Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore, Dubai, Hamad, Dammam, Jubail, Singapore and Qingdao (dubbed CIMEX3 by CMA CGM, ME2 by OOCL, WAX by Evergreen, MEX3 by COSCO and WAX by APL).
   The first of the two abovementioned current loops deploys seven vessels averaging 9,829 TEUs, according to BlueWater Reporting, while the latter of the two deploys seven vessels averaging 10,785 TEUs.
   These five loops are in addition to the two Asia-Red Sea loops the Ocean Alliance participates on with PIL.