Evergreen, COSCO split South African, South American services

Evergreen, COSCO split South African, South American services Evergreen and COSCO Container Lines said they will split their Asia/South Africa/East Coast South American service, known as ESA, to create two new upgraded services.
   The revised ESA service will deploy nine 2,800-TEU vessels: six from Evergreen and three from COSCO. The service will have a port rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Santos, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santos, Singapore, Hong Kong, and back to Shanghai.
   The new Far East-South African service, called FAX, will comprise eight 3,400-TEU vessels: five from Evergreen and three from COSCO. The vessels' port rotation will be Shanghai, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Durban, Cape Town, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, and back to Shanghai.
   The first sailing from Shanghai for the revised ESA service will be Evergreen’s vessel “Cordelia” on May 15, followed by the first FAX sailing from Shanghai with Evergreen’s “Ever Guest” on May 18.
   The companies said the revised ESA will provide quicker transit times between major ports in the Far East and destinations in South America, while the new FAX service will offer shippers direct calls to major ports in Central and Southern China.