YANGMING TO DEPLOY POST-PANAMAX VESSELS IN ASIA/EUROPE AND PACIFIC

YANGMING TO DEPLOY POST-PANAMAX VESSELS IN ASIA/EUROPE AND PACIFIC    Yangming Marine Transport has taken delivery of its first post-Panamax containership, the Ming Plum, and confirmed that it will deploy seven such 5,551-TEU vessels in the Asia/Europe and transpacific trades by the end of 2001.
   The 24.9-knot Ming Plum and another new 5,551-TEU ship will join the AES joint service of Yangming, China Ocean Shipping Co. and “K” Line between Asia and northern Europe. The two vessels will replace smaller chartered vessels in the AES service.
   Yangming said that the westbound Asia/northern Europe trade is very strong.
   The next five 5,551-TEU vessels being built will be delivered between February and December 2001. The ships will join the Y-PSW joint transpacific service of Yangming, COSCO and “K” Line, replacing six slower 3,266-TEU containerships and substantially reducing operating costs, Yangming said. This service calls at Los Angeles, Oakland, Yokohama, Kobe, Busan, Shanghai, Yantian, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Busan, Los Angeles and Oakland.
   The deployment by Yangming of 5,551-TEU vessels will also add about 120,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity to the transpacific trade.
   The six 3,266-TEU containerships employed in the Y-PSW service have been sold to the CP Ships group, but are still being operated by Yangming.