EVERGREEN, LLOYD TRIESTINO REVISE TWO TRANSPACIFIC SERVICES

EVERGREEN, LLOYD TRIESTINO REVISE TWO TRANSPACIFIC SERVICES    Evergreen Line and sister company Lloyd Triestino will revamp two of their joint    weekly transpacific container services in May by shortening their port rotations and employing larger vessels.
   The six-vessel Hong Kong-Taiwan-U.S. West Coast HTW service will be restructured and become a four-vessel operation. Three vessels of 4,200-TEU and one of 5,600-TEU will replace six slower ships of 3,428-TEU capacity, thereby adding about 60,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity.
   The rotation of the HTW loop will be shortened to a 28-day round trip trade route serving Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Kaohsiung. Call at Busan, Tacoma, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia, will be ended on this service.
   The five-ship TransPacific Northwest TPN service will become a 28-day round-voyage operation utilizing four vessels. Port calls at Tokyo will be omitted in the new schedule.
   In May, it is expected that the TPN service will employ four 5,600-TEU vessels, instead of three 5,600-TEU and two 4,200-TEU ships now. The size upgrading will also add some capacity.
   Evergreen said that the changes would improve vessel utilization and reduce transit times.
   The carriers’ switch to shorter 28-day rotations in the transpacific follows a statement made by Evergreen group chairman Y.F. Chang of plans to operate “shuttle services” in the east/west trades.