ACL TAKES SPACE ON NEW GRAND ALLIANCE TRANSATLANTIC LOOPS

ACL TAKES SPACE ON NEW GRAND ALLIANCE TRANSATLANTIC LOOPS    Atlantic Container Line will expand its number of transatlantic service loops at the end of this month by taking space on the U.S. North Atlantic and South Atlantic services of the Grand Alliance.
   ACL will move cargoes on the ATX and SGX “butterfly” services of Grand Alliance carriers Hapag-Lloyd, P&O Nedlloyd, NYK and OOCL, which it will provide under the ACL names “J service” and “N service.”
   ACL’s J service will run eastbound and westbound between New York, Norfolk and Charleston in the U.S. and Le Havre, Rotterdam and Hamburg in Europe. The first eastbound sailing for ACL will be on Oct. 24 from Norfolk.
   The first westbound departure will be on Oct. 24 from Hamburg. ACL’s N service will operate eastbound only, with calls at Houston, Charleston, Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp. The first sailing is scheduled on Oct. 25 from Houston.
   The carrier said that it will stop taking space on the U.S. Gulf/South Atlantic/north Europe “Gumex” of Hapag-Lloyd and partners at the end of the month. The service calls at Houston, Charleston, Antwerp, Thamesport, Bremerhaven and Le Havre. The port coverage of the service will be replaced by the N service.
   From November, ACL will provide seven weekly sailings eastbound in the transatlantic and six weekly sailings westbound, instead of the current six sailings both ways.
   A spokesman for ACL said that the total number of TEU slots deployed by the company under the new arrangement will remain virtually unchanged.
   The transit times of all the new transatlantic services are posted on the global liner shipping database ComPairData at www.compairdata.