COSCO to focus on South American network gap

COSCO to focus on South American network gap    COSCO Container Lines Managing Director Sun Jiakang has indicated his company will focus on lanes to and from emerging markets with high consumer growth potential, like intra-Asia and South America.
   'The consumer markets in these emerging regions showed better resilience during and after the crisis,' Jiakang told maritime news publication Containerisation International this week. 'Our efforts never stopped at exploring the highlights in the world economy. For 2011, we consider launching new services on the South America trade.'
   According to American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data, COSCO has a very limited presence in the trades between South America and Asia, North America, or Europe. It partners with Evergreen on one service between Asia and the East Coast of South America (the 10-ship ESA loop), providing four 3,500 vessels, and offers no service itself or via the CKYH Alliance between South America and North America or Europe.
   Given that COSCO is the world's eighth-largest container line by fleet size and projects to be the fourth-largest at the conclusion of its current order book, that's a major gap in its global network.