HANJIN, SENATOR LOWER ASIA/PNW CAPACITY, WITHDRAW SHIPS

HANJIN, SENATOR LOWER ASIA/PNW CAPACITY, WITHDRAW SHIPS    Hanjin Shipping and Senator Lines are reducing the capacity of their Asia/Pacific Northwest services and withdrawing five vessels from the trade.
   A spokesman for Hanjin at group headquarters in Seoul said that the PNX 1 and PNX 2 loops are being merged this month into one weekly service, so that vessels can be transferred to other services of the United Alliance to replace former Cho Yang vessels.
   Embattled carrier Cho Yang left the United Alliance last week. Hanjin and Senator had to step in to replace seven Cho Yang ships of about 3,000 TEU capacity previously employed in alliance services.
   The PNX 1 loop employed six vessels and the PNX 2 service had five, provided by Hanjin and by Senator. The merged PNX loop will utilize six ships with capacities ranging between 2,600 and 4,300 TEUs.
   The weekly service will have a rotation of Hong Kong; Kaohsiung; Pusan; Osaka; Tokyo; Seattle; Vancouver, British Columbia;    Portland; Tokyo; Osaka; Pusan; Kwangyang; Keelung and Hong Kong.
   Cho Yang, now slot-charterer, is expected to have space on the service.
   Hanjin said that the merger of its two Asia/Pacific Northwest services into one is not related to the slowdown of the eastbound transpacific trade.
   Meanwhile, four former Hanjin transpacific ships of about 2,600-TEU capacity freed by the service merger are transferring to the Asia/U.S. East Coast AWP and Asia/Suez/Mediterranean/U.S. East Coast AMA services of the United Alliance.
   Hanjin said that it has also chartered two vessels to take the positions of former Cho Yang ships.
   The transit times and vessel details of the new PNX service are available from ComPairData, the global liner shipping database on the Internet, at https://www.compairdata.com.