Grand Alliance, CP Ships to omit Atlantic calls

Grand Alliance, CP Ships to omit Atlantic calls    Grand Alliance carriers Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, OOCL and P&O Nedlloyd and CP Ships subsidiaries Lykes Lines and TMM Lines will omit several port calls in some of their joint transatlantic container services to improve schedule timeliness, but said they will retain service to these ports on other services of the vessel-sharing agreement.
   The carrier group’s North Atlantic Express service, described as the “ATX” service by some carriers, will no longer call at Charleston. This service is offered as part of an eight-ship North Atlantic Express/South Atlantic Express weekly “pendulum” operation. The South Atlantic Express half of the service will continue to call Charleston.
   The Gulf Mexico “GMX” service will in future omit calls at the port of Thamesport.
   The North Europe/Halifax/U.S. East Coast/U.S. West Coast “PAX” service will in future omit Le Havre on a permanent basis. However, the North Atlantic Express service will pick up the Le Havre call.
   The changes are expected to be completed in December.
   “It is not anticipated that there will be any significant change in the volume of cargo that is moved through these ports, as cargo will shift to other joint services currently operated under the joint Grand Alliance/CP service structure,” NYK said in a statement.
   The Grand Alliance/CP Ships is the largest carrier grouping in the transatlantic trade and operates five weekly services between North Europe and the United States.