NEW WORLD ALLIANCE ADDS FOURTH ASIA/NORTH EUROPE WEEKLY SERVICE

NEW WORLD ALLIANCE ADDS FOURTH ASIA/NORTH EUROPE WEEKLY SERVICE    New World Alliance carriers APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine and MOL are adding a weekly Asia/northern Europe service in early June.
   The launch of new service, widely expected in the industry, increases the range of the alliance’s Asia/northern Europe activities from three to four services a week.
   Commencing on June 8 with the sailing from Qingdao of the APL France, the “New Europe-China Express” service will call at Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Singapore, Aden, Hamburg, Antwerp and Southampton.
   Transshipment services to India, Pakistan and the East African markets will be provided via the Mideast hub port of Aden.
   The service will provide a weekly capacity each way of 4,020 TEUs, a spokesman for APL said.
   Contrary to expectations, the New World Alliance went ahead with the launch of its Asia/northern Europe service on its own, instead of combining it with the Grand Alliance. Carriers of both alliances had discussed the possibility of adding a combined cross-alliance service this year, instead of two separate weekly loops, to avoid destabilizing the trade.
   A spokesman for MOL in Tokyo said that a service cooperation with the Grand Alliance was still possible in the future. The Grand Alliance consists of Hapag-Lloyd, Malaysia International Shipping Corp., NYK, OOCL and P&O Nedlloyd.
   In related developments, the New World Alliance will revise its JEX, AEX and CEX Asia/northern Europe services next month (in June). The JEX service will include a port call at Yantian and have a rotation of Kobe, Nagoya, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Southampton, Le Havre, Singapore and Kobe. The AEX loop will include a new call at Port Kelang and have a rotation of Kwangyang, Pusan, Hakata, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Singapore, Port Kelang, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Southampton, Colombo, Singapore, Kong Kong, Kaohsiung and Kwangyang. The CEX service will stop calling at Antwerp.