COSCO AND HANJIN FILE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WITH FMC

COSCO AND HANJIN FILE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WITH FMC    COSCO Container Lines, Hanjin Shipping and Hanjin-controlled Senator Lines have notified a slot allocation and sailing agreement to the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission.
   'The agreement is believed to form part of what will eventually become the COSCO/”K” Line/Yang Ming/Hanjin global alliance, currently under discussion by the four major Asian carriers.
   Under the COSCO/Hanjin agreement, the two carriers and Senator will be allowed to charter container space to and from each other and rationalize port calls and sailings in the trade between ports in Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, and the U.S. Pacific coast.
   Senator has already said it will start taking space on two COSCO weekly transpacific services in January.
   “K” Line and Yang Ming, another two partners in the proposed alliance, announced on Nov. 27 a series of joint transpacific and Asia/Europe services that will be implemented in the first quarter of next year. “K” Line and Hanjin, together with Senator, have also come to an agreement to exchange space between Asian and Pacific Northwest ports, effective mid-December.
   Toshio Shimizu, general manager, containerships business group at “K” Line, said the discussions between COSCO Yang Ming, Hanjin and “K” Line about their future alliance will likely be concluded within a few weeks.
   However, he said the cooperation will be looser than those of the New World Alliance and the Grand Alliance.
   “We still keep this basic policy,” Shimizu said, referring to the loose alliance structure. The alliance will be built on several bilateral agreements, he said, including the pact to pool 35 ships for joint services to be run by “K” Line and Yang Ming.
   Although the final service configuration of the large Asian alliance has not been finalized, initial announcements suggest that the four carriers will combine all their existing services. COSCO, “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin operate a total of 15 Asia/North American, 10 Asia/Mediterranean/Europe and six North America/Mediterranean/Europe weekly container services today.