“K” Line, MOL join Hanjin, Zim in new U.S./South America VSA

“K” Line, MOL join Hanjin, Zim in new U.S./South America VSA

“K” Line, MOL join Hanjin, Zim in new U.S./South America VSA

   Fellow Japanese carriers “K” Line and MOL will enter the U.S. East Coast/East Coast South America trade in May in partnership with Zim Israel Navigation Co. and Hanjin Shipping, as a result of the breakup of the U.S. East Coast/East Coast South America Independent Carriers Alliance.
   The Independent Carriers Alliance comprised Hanjin, Zim, CMA CGM and Montemar, a subsidiary of Compania Sud America de Vapores.
   While Zim and Hanjin will team up with “K” Line and MOL, within a new vessel-sharing agreement, CMA CGM and Montemar will continue to cooperate within a competing joint service in the same trade.
   The joint “K” Line, MOL, Zim and Hanjin service will include calls at New York, Miami, Kingston, Puerto Cabello, a range of Brazilian ports from Fortaleza to Rio Grande and a direct call on the River Plate. Each of the four partner carriers will contribute one or more ships to the new service, which will initially start with five ships of about 1,700 TEUs.
   Plans are already being made to add a sixth ship to make the service fixed-day weekly, Zim said.
   In response, CMA CGM and Montemar will operate a weekly service with larger ships of 2,500-TEU capacities. The itinerary of this service has not been announced.
   The Independent Carriers Alliance service has used five ships with an average TEU capacity of 1,629 TEUs and calls New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Port Everglades, Kingston, Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio Grande, Itajai, Santos, Vitoria, Fortaleza, Kingston and back to New York.
   The service changes will add more than 100,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity to the trade.