Ocean carrier Hanjin recently added calls to Sohar, Oman and Bandar Abbas, Iran on its FMX service between Asia and the Middle East.
Ocean carrier Hanjin Shipping, a member of the CKYHE Alliance, recently added calls to Sohar and Bandar Abbas on its FMX service between Asia and the Middle East, significantly strengthening the two ports’ direct container shipping connections with Asia.
According to Hanjin’s online service schedules, the FMX began calling Bandar Abbas with the July 13 arrival of the Hanjin Rome, which departed Shanghai June 14. The service began calling Sohar with the July 5 sailing of the Hanjin Hamburg from Shanghai, scheduled to arrive at the Omani port Aug. 5.
According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the FMX operates with seven vessels with an average capacity of 7,013 TEUs. The loop has a port rotation of Shanghai, Gwangyang, Busan, Ningbo, Xiamen, Shekou, Singapore, Port Kelang, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bandar Abbas, Sohar, Singapore, Chiwan and Shanghai. Fellow CKYHE member “K” Line purchases slots on the FMX, along with KMTC and X-Press.
Only one other container shipping service provides direct connections between Sohar and Asia, the joint CMX/ME1 operated by APL, Hapag-Lloyd, MOL and OOCL, according to BlueWater Reporting’s Port Dashboard tool. The service operates with six vessels, three from APL and one each from Hapag-Lloyd, MOL and OOCL, with an average capacity of 8,827 TEUs. The CMX/ME1 has a rotation of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sohar, Singapore, Nansha, Chiwan and Shanghai.
In addition, only one other container shipping service connects Bandar Abbas directly with Asia, the CMS/CSG, operated jointly by Wan Hai and PIL. The service operates with six vessels with an average capacity of 4,260 TEUs. The CMS/CSG has a rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Shekou, Hong Kong, Singapore, Port Kelang, Dubai, Bandar Abbas, Port Kelang, Singapore, Shekou and Shanghai.
In sum, 35 ocean carriers deploy capacity across a total of 75 loops serving the Asia to Middle East/ISC trade, as illustrated by BlueWater Reporting’s Capacity Report and Carrier Trade Route Deployment Report applications. Of those 75 services, 53 are dedicated services, meaning they do not call any other region, and the remaining 22 loops call bring cargo from Asia to the Middle East en route to other destinations such as North Europe, the Mediterranean, or the East Coast of North America.
The adjacent chart compares the weekly deployed capacity of the top five carriers in the trade. APL, a member of the G6 Alliance, deploys the most capacity on the Asia to the Middle East/ISC trade, with a total 31,234 weekly TEUs. APL is followed closely by Hanjin, which deploys 30,479 TEUs a week towards the trade. Maersk Line and MSC, members of the 2M Alliance, deploy 29,702 and 20,694 TEUs a week from Asia to the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, respectively. Evergreen Line, a member of the CKYHE Alliance, comes in fifth, with 20,211 TEUs of weekly deployed capacity in the trade. The large-scale carrier alliances and vessel sharing agreements, which include the CKYHE, G6, 2M and Ocean3 alliances, only cooperate officially on the three major east-west trades: Asia-Europe, transpacific and transatlantic.