NEW WORLD ALLIANCE ADDS 9TH TRANSPACIFIC SERVICE

NEW WORLD ALLIANCE ADDS 9TH TRANSPACIFIC SERVICE    The New World Alliance of MOL, APL and Hyundai Merchant Marine, the largest alliance grouping in the transpacific trade, has finalized its plan to resume a ninth transpacific weekly container service.
   As reported by Shippers’ NewsWire on April 9, the
alliance is starting a new service called PSV, that will replace the former Pacific Northwest Express loop ended last November.
   Commencing with the sailing of the “MOL Vantage” from Yantian on June 9, the PSV service will call at Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Seattle and Tokyo.
   In addition, the Alliance is expanding its coverage of China by reshuffling its transpacific port rotation to include an additional call at the port of Shanghai and new calls at the ports of Xiamen and Ningbo.
   A call at Ningbo will be added to the alliance’s PS3 service and Xiamen will be added to the PS2 service. To accommodate the new Ningbo call, calls at Seattle, Vancouver, and Kobe (westbound) will be transferred from the PS3 to the new PSV service.
   Starting with the sailing of the “President Truman” from Xiamen on June 7, the alliance’s PS2 service will have a revised rotation of Yokohama, Kobe, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Yantian, Kaohsiung, Los Angeles, Oakland, Dutch Harbor and Yokohama. Commencing with the sailing of the “MOL Strength” from Shanghai on June 7, the PS3 service will call at Tokyo, Nagoya, Ningbo, Shanghai, Kobe, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Oakland and Tokyo.
   “By revamping our existing transpacific services to incorporate an additional call at Shanghai and new calls at Xiamen and Ningbo, we have significantly increased the scope of our China service and concurrently extended our customers service choices throughout the Pacific Rim,” said Ray Keene, executive vice president and chief operating officer of MOL (America) Inc.
   Ocean carriers, who are taking delivery of a large number of new containerships this year, have benefitted from an increase in eastbound transpacific volumes since mid-February.
   However, the prospect of substantial vessel over-capacity has also resurfaced: so far, ocean carriers have confirmed that four new weekly transpacific container services are being added    before the start of this year’s peak season.