GRAND ALLIANCE, AMERICANA AIM TO CUT ATLANTIC TRANSIT TIMES

GRAND ALLIANCE, AMERICANA AIM TO CUT ATLANTIC TRANSIT TIMES    Grand Alliance carriers P&O Nedlloyd, Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL and NYK and Americana Ships operators Lykes Lines and TMM Lines aim to provide the fastest transit times in the Atlantic trade once their five-services-a-week joint operation is in place.
   The Grand Alliance and Americana Ships will introduce their new joint transatlantic services gradually, between early July and October, replacing a number of smaller transatlantic vessel-sharing agreements that the carriers currently have.
   Peter Bas Bredius, senior vice president and general manager, Atlantic trade, at P&O Nedlloyd, said that the revised services will shorten transit times by up to 6 days compared with the previous vessel-sharing agreement services of P&O Nedlloyd, OOCL and Maersk Sealand.
   Bredius said that the new joint services will have an eastbound transit time of 6 days from New York to the United Kingdom, compared to 12 days with the P&O Nedlloyd/Maersk Sealand VSA service. Time-in-transit from Charleston/Savannah to Bremehaven will drop to 8 days, from the current VSA transit of 11 days. The transit time from Rotterdam to Charleston/Savannah will decrease by one day, to 11 days.
   Providing a comparison of transit times on key corridors with major competitors, Bredius said that the unprecedented five-sailings-a-week joint operation of the Grand Alliance and Americana Ships will have “best of market” transit times. The improvement will come partly from using faster ships and partly from allocating specific inbound or outbound port positions to different services, he said.
   The five weekly Atlantic services, whose final rotations are still subject to terminal contract negotiations, will be:
   * The “North Atlantic Express,” calling at Norfolk or Baltimore, Charleston or Savannah, New York, an unnamed U.K. port, Le Havre, Rotterdam or Antwerp, and Bremerhaven or Hamburg;
   * The “South Atlantic Express,” with calls at Charleston or Savannah, Miami, Houston, an unnamed U.K. port, Le Havre, Rotterdam or Antwerp, and Bremerhaven or Hamburg;
   * The “Pacific Atlantic Express,” calling at Seattle (eastbound only), Oakland, Long Beach, Savannah, Norfolk or Baltimore, New York, Halifax, an unnamed U.K. port, Le Havre, Rotterdam or Antwerp, and Bremerhaven or Hamburg;
   * The “Mexico Atlantic Express,” calling at Charleston or Savannah, Houston, Altamira, Veracruz, an unnamed U.K. port, Le Havre, Rotterdam or Antwerp, and Bremerhaven or Hamburg;
   * The “Gulf Atlantic Express,” which will call at Norfolk or Baltimore, Charleston or Savannah, New Orleans, Houston, an unnamed U.K. port, Rotterdam or Antwerp, and Bremerhaven or Hamburg.
   P&O Nedlloyd will operate 11 of the 31 vessels employed in the joint Grand Alliance/Americana Ships services. One of the services, the Pacific Atlantic Express, covers the transpacific and transatlantic trades with 13 ships in one extended rotation. The North Atlantic Express and South Atlantic Express links will be two services combined into one and will be served by eight ships of about 2,750 TEUs.
   The Grand Alliance and Americana Ships will provide a combined capacity of 12,100 TEUs a week each way and will have a market share of 30 percent of the Atlantic trade, P&O Nedlloyd said.