BWR: G6 Alliance enhances Asia-Europe loop

Members of the ocean carrier alliance announced they will add calls to Gothenburg and Antwerp to their Loop 7 service between Asia and Europe.    Members of the G6 Alliance – ocean carriers APL, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Orient Overseas Container Line –  have added calls to their Loop 7 service between Asia and Europe.
   The carriers added calls to Antwerp and Gothenburg with the July 13 sailing of the Hyundai Drive from Qingdao, which will arrive in Gothenburg Aug. 27 and Antwerp Aug. 30, alliance members said in a statement.
   The revised port rotation of Loop 7 is Qingdao, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Antwerp, Southampton, Singapore, Yantian and Qingdao.
   According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the G6 members operate Loop 7 with 12 vessels with an average capacity of 13,476 TEUs.
   The AE1/Shogun service, operated by the 2M Alliance, composed of Maersk Line and MSC, is the only other container service that offers direct container connections between Gothenburg and Asia. Maersk Line provides all 12 vessels on the service, which have an average capacity of 13,297 TEUs.
   Nine container shipping services offer direct connections between Antwerp and Asia – the AE9/Condor, AE2/Swan and AE6/TP6/Lion/Pearl (Asia to Europe only), operated by the 2M Alliance; Loop 6, operated by the G6 Alliance; the AEX7/AEC8, operated by the Ocean 3 Alliance; the NE2, NE3 and NE7, operated by the CKYHE Alliance; and the Vespucci service, jointly operated by CMA CGM, Hamburg Sud, ANL and UASC. 
   The Ocean 3 Alliance is made up of CMA CGM, UASC and CSCL, and the CKYHE Alliance is composed of COSCO, “K” Line, Yang Ming, Hanjin and Evergreen Line.
   In sum, 18 container shipping carriers deploy capacity across a total of 23 loops that serve the Asia to North Europe trade, as illustrated by BlueWater Reporting’s Capacity Report and Carrier Trade Route Deployment Report applications. Of those 23 services, six of them are dedicated Asia to North Europe services and three of them are Asia to North Europe/Mediterranean dedicated services, meaning they do not call any other region.
   The adjacent chart compares the weekly deployed capacity of all services, aside from Loop 7, that deploy capacity from Asia to Antwerp and Gothenburg. The AE2/Swan deploys the most capacity each week from Asia to Antwerp, with a total of 15,971 TEUs. CKYHE Alliance’s NE7 and NE3, which come in second and third, deploying 13,595 TEUs and 13,316 TEUs each week, respectively. Overall, the nine services between Asia and Antwerp account for 97,688 TEUs of deployed capacity each week.