STRUGGLING CHO YANG DRIVEN OUT OF UNITED ALLIANCE

STRUGGLING CHO YANG DRIVEN OUT OF UNITED ALLIANCE    Cho Yang Shipping, the struggling Korean shipping line, has given up its membership of the United Alliance after a senior level meeting with its carrier partners.
   At the meeting in Seoul at the headquarters of Hanjin Shipping, the largest carrier in the United Alliance, Cho Yang managing director N.H. Paik agreed to transfer all the vessels operated by the company to alliance partners. He also agreed that Cho Yang would cease to be a member of the United Alliance, which now comprises Hanjin, its subsidiary Senator and United Arab Shipping Co.
   “United Alliance members have announced today that the seven vessels currently being provided by Cho Yang out of the total alliance fleet will be replaced by Hanjin and Senator vessels,” Hanjin and Senator said in a joint statement.”
   The change of vessel provision will be immediately implemented. Cho Yang has operated seven ships of 2,700 to 2,850 TEUs in the United Alliance: the Choyang Chance, Choyang Giant, Choyang Honour, Choyang Park, Choyang Success, Choyang World and Choyang Zenith.
   The carriers said the most important consideration that led the alliance members to this move was “the necessity to restore customer confidence, which suffered during recent schedule irregularities of Cho Yang vessels deployed in United Alliance service.” Cho Yang ships have been detained under arrest in ports.
   “Only through the recovery of schedule regularity of United Alliance's vessels deployed by Cho Yang can customers' confidence be regained,” Hanjin and Senator added. As a non-vessel provider, Cho Yang will now buy space on the services of the alliance, a spokesman for Hanjin in Seoul said. Cho Yang has recently cut back its involvement in the transatlantic trade and pulled out of two transpacific and Asia/Europe services operated by the United Alliance.
   In addition to its remaining transpacific, Asia/Europe and transatlantic services as a slot-charterer, Cho Yang also runs intra-Asia container services.
   Spokesmen for Cho Yang at the company's headquarters in Seoul were not immediately available to comment on the line's retrenchment.