NEW WORLD ALLIANCE ADDS KWANGYANG CALL TRANSPACIFIC EASTBOUND

NEW WORLD ALLIANCE ADDS KWANGYANG CALL TRANSPACIFIC EASTBOUND

   New World Alliance partners APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines are adding an outbound call at Kwangyang, southwest Korea, to their five-ship service from China, Korea and Japan to Los Angeles and Oakland.
   At present the service begins loading at Qingdao, China, and Pusan, Korea, then Hakata, Nagoya and Yokohama in Japan. The new call at Kwangyang is after Qingdao and before Pusan, said the alliance.
   The new 13-day Kwangyang-Los Angeles transit is the same as previously advertised from Pusan (now 12 days), and completes the alliance lines’ Kwangyang coverage to/from both the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest ports of North America. Its Pacific Northwest service calls at Kwangyang both inbound and outbound and its main Pacific Southwest service already calls there inbound.
   An analyis of all transpacific liner services now calling at Kwangyang in Compair Data (www.compairdata.com) shows that the New World Alliance has now gained an advantage in that it is the only service provider fully covering Kwangyang’s direct trade with Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest ports in North America, in both directions.
   Eastbound connections from Kwangyang to the Pacific Northwest are operated by Hanjin’s alliance (PNX2) and by Maersk Sealand (TP2), but westbound the only competition is from Zim’s Pacific Service.
   In the Pacific Southwest sector Hanjin’s group covers both the westbound and eastbound trades with only a single call in Kwangyang (CAX), while Maersk Sealand and Zim specialise only in the eastbound direction (TP5 and Pacific Service respectively).