CKYHS ALLIANCE SWITCHES ROUTING OF TWO ATLANTIC SERVICES

CKYHS ALLIANCE SWITCHES ROUTING OF TWO ATLANTIC SERVICES    COSCO, “K” Line, Yang Ming, Hanjin and Senator Lines, the carriers of the so-called CKYHS alliance are switching the routings of two of their joint weekly transatlantic services.
   Commencing later this month, the AUM “pendulum” service, formerly serving ports of Asia, the U.S. and the Mediterranean, will be renamed the AUE service and call at north European ports instead of Mediterranean ports. Conversely, the TAS 3 service, previously calling at ports of the U.S. and north Europe, will cover Mediterranean ports.
   The AUE service, which includes a transpacific leg, will use 12 ships averaging 3,700 TEUs and call at Charleston, Norfolk, New York, Boston, Antwerp, Felixstowe, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Le Havre, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Qingdao, Shanghai, Yantian, Hong Kong and Charleston. The last vessel on the AUM service, to be replaced by the AEU operation, will depart from Charleston on May 18.
   The U.S./Mediterranean AMS service, which will replace the TAS 3 service, will employ four vessels averaging nearly 3,400 TEUs. The AMS service will call at New York, Norfolk, Charleston, Naples, Genoa, Barcelona, New York, Norfolk and Charleston.
   Hanjin and Senator Lines will start taking space on the
U.S./Mediterranean AMS ships.
   The complex operational reshuffle by the carriers of the CKYHS alliance follows their recent decision to withdraw their independent TAS 2 U.S./north Europe loop and take space from the Grand Alliance and CP Ships on two services in the transatlantic market instead. The former weekly TAS 2 service of COSCO, “K” Line and Yang Ming will be ended by the end of June.
   The reshuffle is expected to add some capacity to the U.S./north Europe segment of the overtonnaged transatlantic trade.