China Shipping resumes Asia/Med service with Iranian line

China Shipping resumes Asia/Med service with Iranian line

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China Shipping Container Lines will from the start of next month restart its briefly halted Asia/Mediterranean AMX1 service under a new joint service agreement with Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL).
   The two carriers also exchange slots on two services in the Asia/North Europe and Europe/Middle East trades.
   CSCL suspended the AMX1 after the slowdown in Chinese production caused by the Lunar New Year holiday and severe winter snowstorms.
   The service will resume with the westbound departure from Tianjin on May 2 of the 6,500-TEU IRISL-operated ship Fifth Ocean. The same vessel will start the eastbound rotation from Malta on May 29.
   IRISL will contribute four ships of 6,500 TEUs, while CSCL will deploy the same number of ships but with a smaller capacity of 5,668 TEUs.
   The new AMX1 rotation includes calls at Tianjin and Dalian, while Xiamen and Jeddah, served on the past incarnation of the service, have been dropped.
   The full rotation will be Tianjin, Dalian, Busan, Shanghai Ningbo, Shekou, Port Kelang, Malta, Damietta, Valencia, Barcelona, Genoa, Damietta, Ningbo and back to Tianjin.
   It is not clear whether Argentine carrier Maruba will resume taking slots from CSCL on the service as it did previously.