AXS-Alphaliner Newsl..

ALPHALINER Weekly Newsletter 2009-Week 16
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SERVICE UPDATES
Amsterdam left with sole
mainline service
following departure of
EU 2
Current crisis prompts
further service
consolidation in
Intra-Asia
Grand Alliance drops Amsterdam on EU 2
The Grand Alliance (Hapag-Lloyd + NYK + OOCL + MISC Bhd) is to alter the
European range rotation of its Asia-Europe Loop 2 (EU 2) service.
The main change concerns the inclusion of Rotterdam at the expense of
Amsterdam. The EU2 used to call at the Ceres Terminal in Amsterdam,
which used to be controlled by alliance member NYK. Since December
2008, the terminal has been under the control of Hutchison Port Holdings
(HPH) which obtained a majority stake in a share-swap agreement with
NYK. Under the terms of the agreement, NYK was granted by HPH a
minority stake in Rotterdam’s Europe Container Terminals (ECT).
With the EU 2 dropping Amsterdam, the Ceres Terminal is now left with
only a single deep sea loop calling, the Grand Alliance’s Asia-Europe Loop
1 (EU 1).
On its side, Rotterdam is reported to consider a reduction in port dues in
order to attract additional traffic. The port of Rotterdam had earlier
reported a 16% decline in container volumes to 2.3M TEU for the first
quarter of 2009. The port forecasts a decline in throughput of 6%-10% for
2009. It says problems in container shipping continue to dominate the
situaltion and that recovery will begin “a little later than anticipated”.
K Line and TSK team up on intra Asia services
K Line and TSK (Tokyo Senpaku Kaisha - the intra-Asia arm of NYK) have
reached an agreement to launch a joint service between Japan, the
Philippines and the Straits / Jakarta sector from mid-May 2009.
In response to the ongoing financial crisis that has drastically reduced
cargo volume for this sector, the two carriers will merge two existing,
independent services, the TSK's 'Pegasus' service (PGS) and the K Line's
'Pineapple Express' into one service, unifying fleet deployment to their
maximum size, thereby improving efficiency and schedule integrity.
Four vessels of about 1,700 teu will be deployed on a 28-day round voyage
to provide a weekly service (two provided by K Line and two by TSK). It
will cover Osaka, Shimizu, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kobe, Keelung,
Manila, Singapore, Port Kelang, Jakarta, Singapore, Manila, Osaka.
In addition to this newly-established joint service, both carriers also agree
to widen their cooperation by exchanging slots with each other on their
existing services, to maximize efficiency and provide a wider range of
services to their customers.
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