Carriers to use larger ships in U.S. East Coast-East Coast South America service

CSAV, Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg Süd, NYK file vessel-sharing agreement with FMC.    CSAV Group, Hapag Lloyd, Hamburg Süd, Aliança and NYK will jointly operate in the trade between the East Coast of North America and Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
   Hapag-Lloyd said that instead of the carriers operating on two stings, they will use a single string with seven 5,500-TEU vessels featuring increased reefer capacity.
   It said the new setup is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2014, subject to regulatory approval.
   According to their filing with the Federal Maritime Commission, four ships will be provided by Hamburg Süd and Alianca; two by Hapag-Lloyd and CSAV, which are in the process of merging; and one by NYK.
   Initially, each of the seven ships will have nominal capacity of 5,500 TEU, but the agreement allows the number of ships to vary from five to nine, and capacity to fluctuate between 4,500 TEU and 7,000 TEU.
   Space will be allocated as follows:

• Hamburg-Süd/Alianca: 2,450 TEU southbound, 2,050 TEU northbound, 250 reefer plugs.
• CSAV subsidiaries Norasia/Libra/CLNU: 956 TEU southbound, 800 TEU northbound, 98 reefer plugs.
• Hapag-Lloyd: 443 TEU southbound; 371 TEU northbound, 45 reefer plugs.
• NYK: 1,051 TEU southbound, 879 northbound, 107 reefer plugs.

   The allocations may be altered by mutual agreement if required by port draft restrictions, or bought or sold from one another on an ad-hoc basis. The agreement also says that the parties consent to Hamburg Süd selling space from within its allocation to NYK and subchartering of that space to Yang Ming by NYK.
   The rotation is New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, Jacksonville, Port Everglades, Suape, Santos, Buenos Aires, Rio Grande, Itapoa, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Pecem, New York.
   CSAV said it will end its participation in what it calls the Tango Sling 2 service, where it is in an alliance with MSC and Zim.