[190213.EN.SEA] Alliances Combine With Asia/USEC via Suez Services From May 2013

SIX container lines are to combine services on the Asia to US east coast via Suez effective May 2013 with capacity rationalisation expected.

Members of the Grand Alliance (Hapag-Lloyd, NYK and OOCL) and the New World Alliance (APL, HMM and MOL) will extend their G6 Alliance launched in March 2012 which extended to create an extensive network on the Far East-Europe network with five services to north Europe from Asia and two Med loops.

The G6 Alliance will merge its AEX loop in which it deploys ten 5,800 TEU units and includes a loop from Zim with NWA's SZX service that includes one loop from Evergreen providing a fleet of nine vessels of 4,500 to 5,000 TEU.

The current merger talks between Germany's largest containership carriers, Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg Sud, both GA members, may alter the longer-term plans for the alliance, reported London's Containerisation International.

MSC's wider 8,700-TEUers get access Indian shallows with more cargo

GENEVA's Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) has started to increase capacity through the deployment of wider 8,700-TEU ships with 19 rows across, replacing narrower 5,900-to 6,700-TEUers on its Europe-Middle East-Indian subcontinent routes.

Starting with the 8,700-TEU, 112,500 dwt MSC Altaira and the same-size MSC ARICA, these are the largest ships to call at Indian ports. They are 299.2 metres long, 48.2 metres wide and have a draft of 14.5 metres.

IPAK, the MSC-CSAV service on which they will be deployed calls at Rotterdam, Antwerp, Felixstowe, Jeddah, Salalah, Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Salalah, Jeddah, Gioia Tauro, Valencia and back to Rotterdam, turning in seven weeks with seven ships, five ship from MSC and two from CSAV.

The new ships stretch the limits of Nhava Sheva and Mundra ports, reports Alphaliner. The vessels are 8.2 metres wider than the ships they replace and have a summer draft of only 14.5 metres thanks to their greater width, but still draw too much water for Indian ports whose maximum depths alongside is 13 metres.

Source : HKSG, 17.01.13.