Evergreen, China Shipping link up on services

Evergreen, China Shipping link up on services       Taiwanese ocean carrier Evergreen Line and China Shipping Container Lines are joining together on a handful of services that will see services merged and larger vessels phased into transpacific, Far East/Europe and Asia/Mexico/U.S. East coast loops.
      The agreement also signifies a new era in China-Taiwan relations, with Evergreen, the world's fourth-largest carrier by fleet capacity, partnering with China's second-biggest liner carrier.
      The services affected by the deal include:
      ' Evergreen's HTW and CPS and China Shipping's AAC and AAS transpacific services.
      ' Evergreen is joining China Shipping's AAE1 Asia-U.S. East service (as AUE2).
      ' Evergreen's CEM and China Shipping's AEX1 Asia-Europe services are being merged.
      The two lines will share slots on two transpacific services. Evergreen's HTW service, which previously employed five vessels of 4,334 to 5,652 TEUs of capacity, will now use five 8,000-TEUs vessels.
      The rotation on the service will be Kaohsiung, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Yantian, Los Angeles, Oakland and Kaohsiung. The previous rotation included calls at Taipei and Tacoma, but those have been eliminated. according to ComPair Data sister company of American Shipper.
      China Shipping will market the service as AAS. The carrier operates an eight-ship transpacific service called AAS that connects the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Far East with Los Angeles. It appears that service will be suspended and replaced with the Evergreen HTW service.
      The other transpacific service in the agreement is China Shipping's AAC service, which is operated with five 5,600-TEU vessels, according to ComPair Data, but will also be upgraded to five 8,000-TEU vessels.
      It will have a rotation of Qingdao, Lian Yun Gang, Shanghai, Ningbo, Busan, Los Angeles, Oakland and Qingdao. Qingdao and Luan Yung Gang are added to the loop, while calls at two South China ports are eliminated.
      The service will be marketed by Evergreen as CPS. Again, Evergreen already operates a service by the same name with a similar rotation.
      In the Asia/Mexico/U.S. East trade, the two carriers will also join on a single loop. Effectively Evergreen is replacing CMA CGM as China Shipping’s partner. The new joint service will be called AUE2 by Evergreen and AAE1 by China Shipping and will deploy eight 4,000-TEU vessels.
      The previous China Shipping AAE1 used seven vessels of 2,670 to 4,250 TEUs, according to ComPair Data. Evergreen's current service on the trade, now AUE1, uses seven 4,200-TEU and one 5,000-TEU vessels.
      The new service closely resembles China Shipping's current loop, with the addition of calls at Lazaro Cardenas in both directions. The new rotation is Shanghai, Hong Kong, Yantian, Lazaro Cardenas, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Miami, Lazaro Cardenas and Shanghai.
      Evergreen's current AUE includes calls at four ports not included in the new rotation, including Baltimore.
      The lines are also cooperating on an Asia/Europe service, which will be marketed as CEM by Evergreen and AEX1 by China Shipping.
      It will merge two existing services. Evergreen operates the CEM in combination with Maersk Line, which buys slots on the service but doesn't provide any of the nine vessels deployed. Zim, CMA CGM and IRISL all buy slots on China Shipping's AEX1, which is operated with seven China Shipping vessels of 5,618 to 9,580-TEU capacities.
      The new combined service will deploy eight 8,000-TEU vessels with a port rotation of Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Felixstowe, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Hong Kong and Qingdao.
      The rotation seems to represent a composite of calls from the two existing services, though with fewer overall calls. Dropped are Evergreen's stops at Tanjung Pelepas, Taranto, Le Havre, Thamesport and Kaohsiung, as well as China Shipping's stops at Nansha, Shekou, Port Kelang and Antwerp.
      “With the benefits of slot-sharing arrangements and joint services, we expect both Evergreen and China Shipping to see significantly upgraded service coverage and more efficiently utilized capacity on the crucial Asia/Europe and Asia/America trades as a result, so providing a better service to our customers,” the lines said in a joint statement Monday.
      The service changes go into effect June 15-17. ' Eric Johnson