Hanjin, Hyundai swap slots on Asia/USEC ships

Hanjin, Hyundai swap slots on Asia/USEC ships    Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine, South Korea’s two largest containership operators, will swap space on two services between Asia and the U.S. East Coast beginning next month.
   Hanjin will take an additional 150 TEUs of capacity from Hyundai’s allocation on the Suez Express (SZX) service, and Hyundai will take 150 TEUs from Hanjin’s allocation on the All Water North Atlantic (AWN) service.
   William Rooney, managing director of North and South America at Hanjin, said the move will double Hanjin’s allocation on the Suez Express service, where it already charters 150 TEUs slots from APL. The SZX service has eight 4,000-TEU ships provided by APL in a port rotation of Singapore, Colombo, Suez, New York, Charleston, Savannah, Norfolk, Suez, Jebel Ali and Singapore. MOL is also a participant in the service.
   The AWN service is one of five trans-Panama routings that the CKYH Alliance of COSCO, “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin offers between Asia and the U.S. East Coast. The service has eight 4,300-TEU ships, with four each provided by Hanjin and Yang Ming. The port rotation is Kaohsiung, Yantian, Shanghai, Busan, Panama, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Panama and Kaohsiung.
   Hanjin said the changes would allow it to expand its presence in the trade between points such as Singapore and Colombo and U.S. East Coast ports, while Hyundai will benefit from service between Shanghai and Busan and the U.S. East Coast.
   The two companies are the largest Korean-based container carriers. Information service Alphaliner ranks Hanjin as the world's 10th-largest container carrier with 460,643 TEUs of capacity and Hyundai as the 18th-largest with 268,095 TEUs of capacity.