Hapag-Lloyd drops slots on Hyundai’s KMS

   The ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd has ended its slot charter agreement with Hyundai Merchant Marine on the latter’s weekly Asia-Middle East feeder service KMS.
   The last sailing will depart Gwangyang, Korea May 9 on the Hyundai General. The service operates with six Hyundai vessels with an average capacity of 5,992 TEUs and the rotation of the KMS remains Gwangyang, Busan, Ningbo, Keelung, Yantian, Hong Kong, Singapore, Port Kelang, Dubai, Bandar Abbas, Karachi, Singapore, Hong Kong and Gwangyang. 
   Hapag-Lloyd will compensate for the loss in available capacity in the trade by offering slots on the Asia-Middle East portion of its joint SCX service with the other members of the Grand Alliance and Hanjin Shipping. The Grand Alliance carriers, comprised of Japan-based NYK, Hong Kong-based OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd of Germany, recently extended their weekly transpacific SCX loop to the Middle East, adding three ships to the existing eight and increasing roundtrip voyage time from 56 days to 77 days. 
   The SCX added calls at Yantian, Shanghai, Ningbo, Busan, Singapore, Port Kelang, and the Middle East ports of Dubai and Dammam, while dropping calls at Kobe, Nagoya, Tokyo, Sendai, Kaohsiung, and Shekou. The revised rotation of SCX becomes Los Angeles, Oakland, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Singapore, Dubai, Dammam, Port Kelang, Singapore, Laem Chabang, Yantian, and Los Angeles.
   Maersk Line also purchases slots on the 11-ship average 5,866-TEUs SCX, though only eastbound from Laem Chabang to Los Angeles.   
   The Japan calls previously offered on the Grand Alliance’s SCX will now be served by the carriers’ seasonal Japan-West Coast North America JPX, which will commence sailing May 10 from Kobe on the Summer E. The service operates with five vessels with an average capacity of 3,524 TEUs, weekly connecting Kobe, Nagoya, Tokyo, and Sendai with Long Beach and Oakland. – ComPair Data, Ben Meyer