NEW WORLD ALLIANCE CONFIRMS ASIA/EUROPE CAPACITY CUTS

NEW WORLD ALLIANCE CONFIRMS ASIA/EUROPE CAPACITY CUTS    New World Alliance carriers APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine and MOL have stopped a fortnightly Asia/northern Europe service and decided to discontinue a weekly Asia/Mediterranean service in April.
   The fortnightly Northern China Express service has used four vessels and called at Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Chiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hamburg, Le Havre, Southampton, Singapore, Hong Kong, Qingdao, Ningbo and Shanghai.
      The withdrawal of both services will reduce capacity in the over-tonnaged Asia/northern Europe/Mediterranean trade by 249,000 TEUs a year, according to a January 2002 report from the global liner shipping database ComPairData. The two services accounted for 3 percent of the cumulative westbound ship capacity of all carriers in January.
   An executive at MOL in Tokyo said that the direct Asia/Mediterranean service to be discontinued will be replaced by a transshipment service using the vessels of the services that sail between Asia and northern Europe via the Mediterranean.
      The Asia/Mediterranean service has employed eight vessels, with a rotation of Genoa, Barcelona, Fos, Port Said, Jeddah, Singapore, Hong Kong, Keelung, Busan, Kobe, Nagoya, Yokohama, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Singapore, Port Kelang, Port Said, Genoa, Barcelona and Fos.
   China Ocean Shipping Co. confirmed earlier this week that it has ended its Asia/Eastern Mediterranean AEM container service, taking about 98,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity out of the Asia/Europe trade.