Evergreen, COSCO, Hapag-Lloyd merge Asia/Red Sea services

Evergreen, COSCO, Hapag-Lloyd merge Asia/Red Sea services    Evergreen Marine, Hapag-Lloyd and COSCO Container Lines will merge two of their joint Far East/Red Sea services into one loop next month.
   The merged service will see the carriers' coverage expanded to include calls in China.
   The two existing services, the Far East-Red Sea (FRS) service and the Strait-Red Sea Express (SRX) service, both using ships of 1,600-1,800 TEUs, will be merged into a single loop called FRS deploying six vessels of about 2,700 TEUs.
   Evergreen will contribute four of the ships on the merged FRS service, with COSCO and Hapag-Lloyd providing one ship each.
   The vessel “LT Going” will make the first sailing on the revised FRS loop when it departs Nansha Nov. 7.
   The port rotation of the new FRS service will be: Nansha, Hong Kong, Shekou, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Aden, Jeddah, Aqaba, Sokhna Port, Singapore and back to Nansha.
   “The Red Sea market is becoming increasingly important for exporters in Southern China,” said Arnold Wang, Evergreen’s president. “Larger vessels provide us with more flexibility regarding stowage when calling at a greater number of ports.”