CHINA SHIPPING ADDS TO TRANSPACIFIC CAPACITY

CHINA SHIPPING ADDS TO TRANSPACIFIC CAPACITY    China Shipping Container Lines is starting a new weekly U.S. West Coast/Asia/India service “America Asia Thailand” in March.
   The “AAT” service is due to start with the vessel “CSCL Yantian” departing from Nhava Sheva on March 19. Zim will take space on the service.
   The “AAT” service will use nine vessels of around 2,500 TEUs and is scheduled to call Los Angeles, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Chiwan, Singapore, Nhava Sheva, Port Kelang, Laem Chabang, Busan, Hakata and Los Angeles. A spokeman for China Shipping said the port rotation and vessels might still be changed before the service begins.
   The new service will add somewhere in the region of 130,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity to the transpacific and intra-Asia markets.
   China Shipping recently began taking slots on the transpacific leg of Zim’s ZCS service.
   Provisional details of the “AAT” service are now posted on the global liner shipping database, ComPairData, available at www.compairdata.com .