MOL joins Ocean3 Asia-Med loop

The Japanese ocean carrier will join the Ocean3 Alliance’s Phoenician Express/BEX2 loop next week as a slot purchaser.    Ocean carrier MOL will join the Ocean3 Alliance and Evergreen Line’s jointly operated Phoenician Express/BEX2 loop between Asia and the Mediterranean next week as a slot purchaser.
   MOL will join the service with the April 14 sailing of the Ever Unific from Shanghai, according to the carrier’s most recent online service schedules. MOL said it will refer to the Phoenician Express/BEX2 as the UA2.
   The service has a rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Busan, Chiwan, Tanjung Pelepas, Port Kelang, Koper, Trieste, Rijeka, Venice, Koper, Malta, Jeddah, Port Kelang, Tanjung Pelepas, Nansha and Shanghai. However, MOL will not call Rijeka or Malta.
   According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the Phoenician Express/BEX2 operates with 10 vessels with an average capacity of 5,762 TEUs. CSCL provides five vessels, CMA CGM and Evergreen each provide two vessels, and UASC provides one vessel. In addition, COSCO and CMA CGM’s subsidiary line ANL purchase slots on the service. Evergreen and COSCO joined the service just last month.
   MOL said it is becoming a slot purchaser on this loop since the UAM no longer covers the Adriatic.
   The UAM is operated by the CKYHE Alliance (consisting of COSCO, “K” Line, Yang Ming, Hanjin and Evergreen Line), which refers to the loop as the FEM. The  alliance rebranded the loop from the ADR to the FEM, dropping calls at Koper, Trieste and Colombo, while adding a call at Singapore. As a result, the rotation changed to Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Taipei, Yantian, Shekou, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Ashdod, Alexandria, Piraeus, Jeddah, Tanjung Pelepas, Shekou, Kaohsiung and Qingdao.
   A total of eight vessels with an average capacity of 8,073 TEUs operate on the rebranded FEM, which MOL still dubs the UAM.
   MOL’s fellow G6 Alliance partners – Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, OOCL, APL and HMM – do not participate on the FEM and currently do not show any signs of joining the Ocean3 Alliance’s Phoenician Express/BEX2, based on their most recent online service schedules.