BIG AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND SERVICE REVAMP IMPLEMENTED

BIG AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND SERVICE REVAMP IMPLEMENTED    Contship Containerlines, P&O Nedlloyd, Columbus Line and CMA CGM are implementing a major revamp of their Australian and New Zealand container services to and from Europe and North America.
   The first sailings of two new “contra-rotating” round-the-world services happened Monday.
   The two combined services are replacing five existing services in the Europe/Australia/New Zealand and North America/Australia/New Zealand trades, previously operated by the carriers under different consortium arrangements.
   The new eastbound string will sail from Europe to the Suez Canal, Australasia, the Panama Canal and the U.S. East Coast, before returning to Europe. It will operate weekly and deploy 10 new ships of 4,100-TEU capacity.
   Within the westbound string, which will also sail weekly, ships will sail from the Pacific Islands and Australasia, to Southeast Asia, the Suez Canal, Europe and the U.S. East Coast, before returning to Australasia. This second service, an extension of an existing Contship/CMA CGM round-the-world service, will use 12 ships of 2,200-TEU capacities.
   The five services that are being replaced by the two new round-the-world operations are:
   * A fortnightly northern Europe/Mediterranean/Australasia loop, known as the Eagle service.
   * A fortnightly eastbound Europe/Australasia round-the-world service.
   * A fortnightly Mediterranean/Australasia service via the Suez Canal.
   * A westbound round-the-world service that covered Europe, the U.S. East Coast and Australasia every 10 days.
   * A weekly U.S. East Coast/Australasia service via Panama.