New World slows Asia-Middle East WAX loop

   The New World Alliance of liner shipping carriers has added a new call and an additional vessel to their WAX service between Asia and the Middle East. The carriers have added an eastbound call at Shanghai, while increasing the number of vessels deployed on the service from seven to eight and increasing round voyage time from 42 days to 49 days.
   The New World Alliance members are Singapore-owned APL, Japan’s MOL and Hyundai Merchant Marine of Korea.
   The WAX service has a revised rotation of Busan, Gwangyang, Qingdao, Ningbo, Singapore, Dubai, Dammam, Bahrain, Singapore, Ningbo, Shanghai, and Busan. Seven ships are provided by APL and one from MOL, with an average vessel capacity of 6,325 TEUs.      
   The New World Alliance has no other services that call Dammam or Bahrain, nor any other offerings that service the Korea to Middle East trade specifically.
   Other Asia-Middle East services from the carriers include the LWX, which serves Southeast Asia to the Indian Subcontinent only; the newly merged PS1 pendulum, which calls Dubai and Sohar on its Asia to Middle East Gulf leg; Asia-Europe services CEX, which only calls Salalah westbound, and SCX, which calls Colombo westbound and Salalah eastbound; as well as the Asia to United States East Coast via Suez service SZX, which has a westbound call at Colombo and an eastbound call at Dubai. — ComPair Data, Ben Meyer