Evergreen testing Asia/East Med waters

Evergreen testing Asia/East Med waters Taiwanese container operator Evergreen Line will in September run an ad-hoc sailing in the Asia/Eastern Mediterranean trade to cope with booming demand in the region.
   The ports of call on the AEM will be Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Hong Kong, Tanjung Pelepas, Haifa, Limassol, Piraeus, Istanbul, Tanjung Pelepas and Shanghai.
   The Taipei company is finalizing a decision on the exact departure date and vessel type to be used on the test service.
   “Evergreen Line is still deliberating upon the introduction of a regular fixed schedule service in the Eastern Mediterranean region, however there is no conclusion yet,” the carrier told American Shipper.
   Shippers in Israel will hope that the service does get the green light having seen its direct call options significantly reduced recently with the likes of China Shipping and Maersk Line announcing the end of services to the country.
   The Far Eastern Freight Conference, of which Evergreen is not a part of but whose member lines control an estimated two-thirds of the total Asia/Mediterranean vessel capacity, has reported strong growth in the first six months of 2007. FEFC lines’ westbound Asia to Mediterranean volume has increased 24.2 percent in the first half to 1.6 million TEUs while the weaker eastbound trade is up 13.8 percent at 308,690 TEUs.