HANJIN, YANGMING RENEW TRANSPACIFIC PACT

HANJIN, YANGMING RENEW TRANSPACIFIC PACT    Hanjin Shipping of Korea and Yangming Marine Transport Co. of Taiwan have agreed to continue their joint all-water service from Asia to the U.S. East Coast.
   The existing agreement expires in February 2001.
   The joint service, which dates from 1991, involves two lines in rival global alliances, but it is profitable and neither of them wants to make any changes, sources in Hanjin said.
   Hanjin’s alliance partners in other east/west trades are DSR-Senator, Cho Yang Shipping and the United Arab Shipping Co. Yangming’s alliance partners are “K” Line and COSCO Container Line.
   Any further cooperation between Hanjin and Yangming on alliance trades is likely to take the form of local slot exchanges to improve port coverage, subject to their other partners’ agreement, the sources said.
   Last year a plan for Hanjin to trade slots with Yangming between Europe and the U.S. Gulf was turned down, the Hanjin sources said.