Grand Alliance slows Asia/Europe loop, merges another

Grand Alliance slows Asia/Europe loop, merges another    Grand Alliance carriers will in mid-April beginning slow steaming one of their Asia/Europe services, according to research by American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data.
   The Loop A service operates nine ships but in two weeks will be operated with 10 ships when alliance member NYK Line adds a new vessel to the loop. NYK provides all the ships on the service, which has an average vessel size of 8,588 TEUs.
   Loop A has a rotation of Kobe, Nagoya, Shimizu, Tokyo, Yantian, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jeddah, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Southampton, Le Havre, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yantian and Kobe.
   Meanwhile, the Grand Alliance has joined a transpacific service (NWX) with another of the alliance's Asia/Europe services (Loop B) to form a Europe/Asia/U.S. West Coast pendulum, according to a notice in mid-March from alliance member Hapag-Lloyd. Both services were operated with Hapag-Lloyd vessels, except for one NYK ship on the transpacific NWX, which serves the Pacific Northwest ports.
   The rotation of the merged service, with Asia in the middle of the pendulum, is Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Da Chan Bay, Singapore, Suez Canal, Hamburg, Antwerp, Southampton, Port Said, Jeddah, Jebel Ali, Singapore, Shekou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Qingdao, Busan, Vancouver, Seattle, Vancouver, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe and Busan.
   According to Hapag-Lloyd, the service will operate with 17 vessels with an average capacity of 8,000 TEUs, all provided by the German line. The previously split NWX and Loop B services were operated with 18 vessels in total, according to ComPair Data.
   Among the services changes in the new pendulum arrangement, stops at Dalian and Xingang will be dropped, with a stop at Da Chan Bay added, while Vancouver becomes the first port of call from Asia on the transpacific eastbound leg.
   Zim is a slot buyer on Loop A, and was a slot buyer individually on Loop B and the NWX, while PIL also took slots on the transpacific service.