CMA CGM WORKS TOWARDS AN EXTENDED ALLIANCE WITH NORASIA

CMA CGM WORKS TOWARDS AN EXTENDED ALLIANCE WITH NORASIA    French-based CMA CGM and Swiss-based Norasia are working towards a closer vessel sharing and slot exchanging alliance which could involve all CMA CGM’s services extending from the Europe/Mediterranean to the Mideast, Far East and the Pacific.
   At present Norasia provides four out of their joint eight Mediterranean/Far East ships and has another one in the four-ship Singapore/Mideast GALEX joint service. It will now also provide one ship in the Europe/Far East FAL service, a Norasia spokesman said.
   Discussions are also taking place with regard to the Pacific, where Norasia now has two strings and CMA CGM has one (its CJX pendulum which covers the Asia/Europe trade as well). It was too early to say if Norasia would be providing a vessel for the CJX, because talks had not even reached the stage of filing plans with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, the spokesman said.
   The plan, if confirmed, will amount to an embryo fifth global alliance, spanning two major east-west tradelanes with a commonly available deployment.