Lykes confirms slot-charters on two Maersk transpacific loops

Lykes confirms slot-charters on two Maersk transpacific loops    CP Ships-owned Lykes Lines confirmed Tuesday it will expand its transpacific container services partly by taking space on two weekly Asia/U.S. West Coast loops operated by Maersk Sealand.
   In addition, Lykes will extend one its transpacific services to Southeast Asia and start its first service between Asia and Australia.
   The two additional transpacific services of Lykes are existing services of Maersk Sealand, known as “TP8” and “TP5.” The cooperative agreement, still subject to regulatory approval, will allow Lykes to offer the services, which it will market as “Pacific Sprint Loop Four” and “Pacific Sprint Loop Five” from mid-July. Pacific Sprint Loop Four will call Yantian, Xiamen, Kaohsiung, Los Angeles, Oakland, Tacoma, Yokohama, Kobe, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong and Yantian. Pacific Sprint Loop Five will call Hong Kong, Nagoya, Yokohama, Oakland, Los Angeles, Kwangyang, Shanghai, Ningbo and Hong Kong.
   Lykes is renaming its three existing transpacific services. The Pacific Sprint becomes “Pacific Sprint Loop One;” the Asia North America Sprint will be “Pacific Sprint Loop Two;” and the Asia Canada Sprint will be known as “Pacific Sprint Loop Three.”
   From mid-July, Lykes plans to extend its “Pacific Sprint Loop Two” service to Southeast Asia under a cooperative agreement with Singapore-based Pacific International Lines. The Singapore-based carrier will operate the portion of the service from Singapore to Shanghai and Lykes will run the portion from Shanghai to Vancouver. The weekly service will provide fixed-day weekly connections between Singapore, Pasir Gudang (Malaysia), Laem Chabang (Thailand), Shanghai, Pusan and Vancouver, Lykes said.
   At the same time, Pacific Sprint Loop Three will add a direct call at the port of Xiamen in China, providing a transit time between Xiamen and Vancouver of 14 days.
   The various moves show that CP Ships intends to become a mainstream carrier in the transpacific trade, rather than one that specializes on small niches such as Asia/Canada and Asia/Mexico.
   On July 7, Lykes will enter the Asia/Australia trade with a fortnightly service using two ships of 1,700 TEUs. It will have a rotation of Yantian, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai, Sydney, Brisbane and Yantian.
   TMM Lines, a sister company of Lykes, is also planning to upgrade its transpacific services, but has not yet finalized the changes.