Hanjin, Senator Lines starting Far East/Middle East service

Hanjin, Senator Lines starting Far East/Middle East service South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping is starting a Far East/Middle East service in which its majority-owned German subsidiary Senator Lines will take slots.
   The FMS is due to start Nov. 10 from Busan in Korea with the departure of the newbuild Hanjin Port Adelaide.
   The full port rotation will be Busan, Shanghai, Chiwan, Singapore, Khor Fakkan, Jebel Ali, Karachi, Singapore, Chiwan and Busan. The westbound transit times will be 18 days from Busan to Jebel Ali, and 19 days eastbound from Jebel Ali to Shanghai.
   The service has a fixed-day, weekly pattern with a 34-day round voyage, but Senator’s schedule only shows three 2,450-TEU vessels operated by Hanjin, meaning that the service skips two weeks out of every five.
   Hanjin and Senator have been testing the Asia/Middle East trade with a single extra loader voyage by the 1,640-TEU Northern Fortune that departed Singapore last week and is due to call at Khor Fakkan and Karachi.
   The FMS is also sign of Senator’s recovery coming after poor financial returns forced the Bremen-based line to cut its staff level and network. Upon the start of the FMS, Senator’s liner portfolio will be boosted to 12 services.
   “The new FMS service is an excellent way of reacting to the latest market developments and of matching additional shipping capacity with cargo volumes,” said Hans-Hermann Mohr, Senator’s chief executive officer. “It also indicates that our strategy to fully concentrate on the most profitable markets and on our services has been crowned with success.”