Zim leaves G6 to start own loop

   The ocean carrier Zim Line has ended its slot charter agreements with the G6 Alliance on the latter’s weekly Asia-Europe Loop 1, Loop 5, and Loop 6 services after only one month of sailings.
   Zim plans to offset this loss in available capacity by reinstating its joint AEX2/AX2/CES2 Asia to North Europe service with vessel partners Evergreen and China Shipping. Zim, Evergreen, and CSCL announced last week that the carriers would resurrect their joint AEX2 service between Asia and northern Europe, which had been withdrawn at the end of November 2011.
   Set to commence with the May 17 sailing of the Zim Djibouti from Qingdao, the service will deploy nine vessels (three from ZIM, five from Evergreen, and one from CSCL), with an average capacity of about 8,600 TEUs. The port rotation of AEX2 will be Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Xiamen, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Port Kelang, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Tanjung Pelepas and Qingdao.
   The reintroduction of AEX2 allows Zim to leave its previous slot agreements with the newly formed G6 Alliance, comprised of New World and Grand Alliance members APL, MOL, Hyundai, OOCL, NYK, and Hapag-Lloyd. Launched in March 2012, the G6 Alliance services replaced existing New World and Grand Alliance Asia-Europe services of which Zim took slots on three of the six (reported by American Shipper March 6). The last sailings of the three services for Zim were the April 1 sailing of the NYK Vesta on Loop 1, the March 31 sailing of the Hyundai Mercury on Loop 5, and the April 2 sailing of the Prague Express on Loop 6. 
   Zim, Evergreen, and CSCL also offer a joint 9-ship average 9,737-TEU AEX1 service, which weekly connects Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Felixstowe, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. CSCL provides five ships on this loop (Evergreen three and Zim one).  
   In addition, Zim operates its own extended Asia-Europe AME service along with subsidiary Gold Star with 11 vessels averaging 3,484 TEUs. It connects China and Southeast Asia with the Indian Subcontinent, Eastern Mediterranean, and North Europe. — ComPair Data, Ben Meyer