Grand Alliance starting Asia/Black Sea service

Grand Alliance starting Asia/Black Sea service Members of the Grand Alliance — Hapag-Lloyd, MISC Berhad, NYK and OOCL — will this summer start a weekly service connecting the Far East with the booming East Mediterranean region.
   The new Asia-Black Sea Express (ABX) is scheduled to start in late June using seven containerships of about 3,000 TEUs on a port rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore, Damietta, Istanbul, Constanza, Odessa, Izmir, Damietta, Singapore and back to Shanghai.
   The ABX will for the first time give the Grand Alliance direct calls from Asia to ports in Turkey, Romania and the Ukraine, whereas before those countries would have been served via feeder services. The Grand Alliance is involved on four weekly services linking Asia to the Egyptian ports of Damietta and Port Said, according to ComPair Data, American Shipper’s affiliated database for global liner services, at https://www.compairdata.com.
   The lines said in a joint statement that the ABX “will further enhance the Grand Alliance network on a fast growing market.”
   At roughly the same time as the ABX is starting, Hapag-Lloyd will end its partnership with CSAV Norasia on the Asia Black Sea (ABS), by withdrawing its single 4,250-TEU ship from the eight-ship service.