NEW WORLD ALLIANCE, GRAND ALLIANCE TO FINALIZE NEW ASIA/EUROPE LOOP

NEW WORLD ALLIANCE, GRAND ALLIANCE TO FINALIZE NEW ASIA/EUROPE LOOP    The New World Alliance and the Grand Alliance are finalizing talks about the launch of a joint Asia/northern Europe service and will announce its details within a week.
   The service will be the first joint east/west service between the two major alliances. The New World Alliance carriers are APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine and MOL. The Grand Alliance lines are Hapag-Lloyd, Malaysia International Shipping Corp., NYK, OOCL, P&O Nedlloyd.
   A senior Hapag-Lloyd executive said that the cross-alliance joint initiative was aimed at avoiding putting too much capacity in the Asia/Europe trade. Each alliance had planned to add a weekly service this summer.
   “We are very close to finalizing,” a spokesman for MOL said.
   Hyundai had already advised its customers of the forthcoming launch in June of the New World Alliance’s new “North China Express” service. The service was to call at Hamburg, Antwerp, Southampton, Singapore, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Qingdao, Ningbo and Shanghai, starting with the sailing from Qingdao on June 8 of the 4,158-TEU APL    France. The service plan is understood to have been replaced by the joint New World Alliance/Grand Alliance operation, of which details have not been announced.
   The New World Alliance currently runs three weekly Asia/northern Europe services. The Grand Alliance operates five Asia/northern Europe loops.