Grand Alliance adds ship to Europe Asia loop

Grand Alliance adds ship to Europe Asia loop The Grand Alliance said it would add a ninth vessel with a capacity of 6,200 TEUs to its Japan/North Europe Service (EU1).
   The group said the addition would allow the ship to operate at what it called “ecospeed” that would reduce pollution emissions by 20 percent to 30 percent.
   Many carriers have reduced service speeds in a bid to reduce fuel consumption in the past year, particularly on long distance services such as those connecting Asian and Europe.
   The Grand Alliance said port coverage of the EU1 Service remains unchanged and that “higher schedule contingencies have been allocated to compensate for delays in congested ports, which occur as a result of the high volume in global container traffic. This allows the GA to improve schedule reliability without harming the environment.”