3 lines merge Europe/South America services

3 lines merge Europe/South America services       CMA CGM, Hamburg S'd and Hapag-Lloyd said Tuesday they are combining their respective services between Northern Europe and the East Coast of South America into a new two-loop joint service starting Aug. 6.
   The resulting service shaves about 11 percent of capacity from the trade and allows the European carriers to rationalize two competitive services that largely called the same ports.
   It also continues a trend toward collaboration on the Europe/South America trade between Europe's largest carriers. In the past two years, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg S'd and Maersk Line have all tightened their integration across the Atlantic to South America.
   CMA CGM and Hamburg S'd, along with Zim, already jointly operate a Mediterranean/East Coast of South America loop, which CMA CGM calls the Sirius and the others call the Med-ECSA 1. Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg S'd are also slot buyers on a CMA CGM six-ship string, the ECS service, linking Northern Europe and the Caribbean and the North Coast of South America. CMA CGM is similarly a slot buyer on Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg S'd's Eurosal 1 and 2 services between Northern Europe, the Caribbean, Central America and the West Coast of South America.
   Meanwhile, Hamburg S'd, along with Maersk, runs a complex loop between Northern Europe and Oceania that connects in Cartagena, a service it dubs the Trident.
   As for the service announcement Tuesday, CMA CGM will end its Safran loop, which was run with partner Maruba Lines and had a rotation of Tilbury, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Suape, Salvador, Santos, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rio Grande, Sao Francisco do Sul, Paranagua, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Tangier and Tilbury, according to ComPair Data.
   Hamburg S'd's two-string service, on which Hapag-Lloyd was a slot buyer, will also end. The River Plate Express, which Hapag-Lloyd branded as SAEC 1, had a rotation of Rotterdam, Tilbury, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio Grande, Santos, Sepetiba and Rotterdam. The Brazil Express, or SAEC 2 for Hapag-Lloyd, had a rotation of Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Sepetiba, Paranagua, Navegantes, Paranagua, Navegantes, Santos, Salvador and Rotterdam.
   The new as yet unnamed joint two-string service deletes the CMA CGM call at Sao Francisco do Sul. For Hamburg S'd and Hapag-Lloyd, a call at Suape is new, as is a connection in Tangier, a key North African transshipment hub for CMA CGM in the Mediterranean.
   The first string of the new service will have a rotation of Rotterdam, Tilbury, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio Grande, Santos, Suape and Rotterdam. The loop will be operated with six 5,900-TEU Hamburg S'd vessels,
   The second string's rotation will be Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Sepetiba, Navegantes, Paranagua, Santos, Sepetiba, Salvador, Tangier and Rotterdam. The loop will employ six 2,800-TEU vessels, four operated by CMA CGM and its partner Maruba, and two by Hapag-Lloyd.
   'By undertaking this rationalization, CMA CGM and its partners are committed to keep delivering the best service along with an adapted capacity while improving cost,' said Jean-Yves Duval, deputy vice president Latin America lines for the CMA CGM Group.
   The first sailing on loop one will leave Rotterdam Aug. 6 and the first on loop two will leave the Dutch port on Aug. 9. ' Eric Johnson