MSC extends onto full Oceania loop

   Meditetranean Shipping Co., the liner shipping carrier, has announced an extension of its slot charter with Maersk Line and Hamburg Sud on their 10-ship Oceania loop connecting Australia and New Zealand with their various hubs in Panama/Columbia and extending to Savannah and Philadelphia on the U.S. East Coast. It calls this loop its Oceania Express Loop 2.
   MSC lists a northbound hub call at Cristobal and southbound at Balboa, but not the loop’s northbound and southbound calls at Cartagena. The full rotation of the loop is Sydney, Melbourne, Timaru, Port Chalmers, Napier, Tauranga, Aukland, Manzanillo (Cristobal), Cartagena, Philadelphia, Savannah, Cartagena, Balboa, Aukland, and Sydney.
   The first extended sailings will leave simultaneously from Sydney and Philadelphia on Dec. 14, 2011.
   Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg Sud subsidiary Alianca also take slots on this service.
   It is not clear from MSC’s Australian website how Oceania Express loop 1 is currently scheduled.