Grand Alliance scales back on Asia/Europe

Grand Alliance scales back on Asia/Europe    Grand Alliance carriers Hapag-Lloyd, NYK Container Line and OOCL said Wednesday they have temporarily made one of their four weekly Asia/Europe services biweekly as part of their winter capacity reduction program.
   The alliance carriers' Loop D will run every other week until March. The service, according to American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data, has a rotation of Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Yantian, Singapore, Southampton, Le Havre, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Singapore, Shanghai and Busan. It is operated with 10 vessels with average capacity of 6,011 TEUs. OOCL provides five ships, NYK three and Hapag-Lloyd two.
   The Grand Alliance operates three other strings from Asia to Europe:
   ' Loop A, a predominantly NYK-led service to northern Europe.
   ' Loop B, a mammoth 17-ship pendulum service operated entirely with Hapag-Lloyd vessels and connecting northern Europe with Asia and the Pacific Northwest of North America.
   ' Loop C, an OOCL-led 10-ship service to northern Europe.
   The Grand Alliance also buys slots on a Zim service (EMX) between Asia and the Black Sea.
   The announcement Wednesday is the first major service capacity cut on the Far East/Europe lane ahead of the traditional slack season.