COSCO, Evergreen combine strings

COSCO, Evergreen combine strings    Evergreen Line and COSCO Container Lines said they will combine their existing jointly operated Far East/South America service and Far East/Africa Express service into a single loop.
   The change is being made “to cope with the soaring bunker price and in the light of deteriorating market conditions between the Far East and South Africa/East Coast South America.”
   The new service will operate with 11 3,500-TEU vessels. Evergreen will supply seven vessels and COSCO four. The first vessel is to depart from Shanghai on July 6.
   The port rotation is Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Yantian, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Durban, Cape Town, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Paranagua, Santos, Durban, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
   The companies said that through the combined weekly service a wider scope of port calls would be offered, as well as fixed-day weekly departures.