NORASIA, CMA CGM TO ADD CAPACITY ON ASIA/EUROPE/MED SERVICES

NORASIA, CMA CGM TO ADD CAPACITY ON ASIA/EUROPE/MED SERVICES    Swiss ocean carrier Norasia Container Lines has announced details of the changes to two of its joint weekly services with CMA CGM in the Asia/northern Europe/Mediterranean trade.
   From mid-May, new CMA CGM ships of 6,500-TEUs will start to be phased in the French Asia Line service, marketed as AME by Norasia. Currently the service utilizes nine vessels with an average capacity of 4,123-TEUs. Port calls at Damietta (westbound), Jeddah and Singapore will be dropped from the rotation while a call to the Chinese port of Xiamen is to be added.
   The full revised port rotation will be Le Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Zeebrugge, Southampton, Malta, Khor Fakkan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Yantian, Hong Kong, Port Kelang, Malta, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Zeebrugge and Southampton.
   Norasia’s partners on the FAL service are China Shipping Container Lines, CMA CGM and National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia.
   At the same time the Asia/Mediterranean/northern Europe NCX service will soon employ ships of 4,000-TEUs, replacing ships of about 2,400-TEU capacity currently on the service.
   Calls at Southampton (eastbound), Jeddah, Singapore and Kaohsiung will be included in the revised rotation. Direct calls at Inchon and Xiamen, plus the westbound call at Damietta will no longer be available on the service.
   The revised rotation for the NCX service will be Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Malta, Jeddah, Port Kelang, Singapore, Kaohsiung, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Qingdao, Dalian, Busan, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Singapore, Port Kelang, Jeddah, Malta, Southampton, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge and Le Havre.
   Norasia’s partners on the NCX service are China Shipping Container Lines, CMA CGM and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd.