New & Updated Services

Multiple Carriers & Alliances

Sea Intelligence reported that THE Alliance terminated the PS8 service, which connects Asia to North America West Coast, late last month. However, the service will now be operated by HMM, while ONE, Yang Ming and Hapag-Lloyd are slot charterers. The service deploys six vessels on this service with an average vessel capacity of 10,200 TEU. The port rotation is: Shanghai – Kwangyang – Busan – Long Beach – Oakland – Busan – Kwangyang – Incheon – Shanghai.

The Ocean Alliance revised the port rotation of the FAL3, which connects Asia to North Europe, last month. Twelve vessels are deployed on the service, with an average vessel capacity of 17,500 TEU. The following is the new port rotation: Qingdao – Shanghai – Ningbo –Yantian –Singapore – Rotterdam – Southampton – Antwerp – Le Havre – Tangier – Singapore – Qingdao.

In addition, ANL, PIL, OOCL and COSCO will revise the port rotation of the KIX/NZS service, which connects Asia to Oceania, as of this month. Six vessels deployed on the service, with an average vessel capacity of 5,200 TEU, reported Sea Intelligence. The revised port rotation is: Port Klang – Singapore – Auckland – Lyttelton – Wellington – Napier – Tauranga – Port Klang.

CMA CGM

CMA CGM is expanding its NEMO service, connecting North Europe & the Mediterranean with Oceania, by adding a direct call in Ennore (Chennai, India) on the Westbound leg as of June 2023. The first vessel will be Apl Mexico City, due to arrive in Ennore on 9 June. Rotation is as follows: Ennore – Colombo – Malta – Valencia – London Gateway – Rotterdam – Hamburg – Antwerp – Le Havre – Fos Sur Mer – La Spezia – Malta – Pointe Des Galets – Port Louis – Sydney – Melbourne – Adelaide – Singapore – Ennore.

The carrier has also revised the NEFGUI/South America service's port rotation, which connects North Europe to South America East Coast. The revised port rotation of the service will be as follows: Le Havre – Philipsburg – Port of Spain – Degrad des Cannes – Vila do Conde – Fortaleza – Natal – Vigo – Rotterdam – London Gateway – Le Havre.

In addition, the Americas XL service, connecting North America East Coast to South America West Coast, was revised to have a new port rotation as follows: New York – Cartagena (Colombia) – Buenaventura – Guayaquil – Callao – San Antonio – Callao – Guayaquil – Cartagena (Colombia) – Port Everglades – Philadelphia – New York. Six vessels are deployed on the service, with an average capacity of 2,500 TEU.

Lastly, CMA CGM will revise the port rotation of the PAD/NASP service as of May 2023. This service, which connects North Europe to Oceania via North America East Coast, will have thirteen vessels deployed with an average vessel capacity of 2,500 TEU, as reported by Sea Intelligence. The revised port rotation of the service will be: Philadelphia – Rotterdam – Zeebrugge – London Gateway – Dunkirk – Le Havre – New York – Savannah – Kingston – Papeete – Noumea – Brisbane – Sydney – Melbourne – Tauranga – Manzanillo (Panama) – Savannah – Philadelphia.

Hapag-Lloyd

Effective late April 2023, Hapag Lloyd will revise the port rotation of the CES service. The revised port rotation of the service will be: London - Rotterdam - Hamburg - Antwerp - Saint John- Norfolk - Santa Marta - Puerto Limon - Caucedo - London. This service will replace the port pairs that were previously covered with the carrier’s Saint John Express AT3 service.

In addition, the carrier announced that the DEX service would be discontinued at the end of April. The Nouakchott call from this service will be available in the new fortnightly West Africa Service 1 (WA1) service, which will be launched in May 2023. The service will have the following port rotation: Tanger Med – Nouakchott – Freetown – Conakry – Monrovia - Tanger Med.

Starting end of April, the bi-weekly service rotation of the North America West Coast - New Zealand - Australia (WSN) service will be improved. The service’s loop1 rotation will be: Seattle - Oakland - Long Beach – Auckland – Sydney – Melbourne – Tauranga – Papeete – Vancouver. As for loop2, the new rotation will be: Vancouver – Oakland - Long Beach – Auckland – Sydney – Melbourne – Adelaide – Tauranga – Seattle.

Furthermore, effective May 2023, Hapag-Lloyd will revise the port rotation of its East Coast services EC1, EC2 and EC4. Below is the port rotation for each:

• EC1: New York - Norfolk - Charleston - Savannah. The first vessel with the revised rotation will be “MV Hyundai Dream”, sailing on 15 May.
• EC2: Savannah - Charleston - Wilmington - Norfolk. The first vessel with the revised rotation will be “Hyundai Pride”, sailing on the 4 May.
• EC4: Norfolk - Savannah - Charleston - New York. The first vessel with the revised rotation will be “One Munchen”, sailing on 10 May.

MSC

A new weekly service was launched by MSC on 6 April, connecting all major ports in the Middle East region. The service, branded Malabar, deploys a fleet of four 2400 TEU vessels and has the following rotation: Cochin - Mundra - Karachi - Jebel Ali - Abu Dhabi - Shuwaikh Port - Hamad Port - Colombo Port - Cochin.

The carrier also announced the enhancement of its Australia Express Service (AEX) with a direct call at Ennore (Chennai) starting June 2023. The new rotation of the service will be as follows: Ennore – Colombo – Gioia Tauro – Valencia – London Gateway – Rotterdam – Hamburg – Antwerp – Le Havre – Fos Sur Mer – La Spezia – Gioia Tauro – Pointe De Galets – Port Louis – Sydney – Melbourne – Adelaide – Fremantle – Singapore – Ennore. The first vessel on the new rotation will be APL Mexico City, due to arrive in Ennore on 9 June 2023.

MSC’s intra-Europe service Turkiye to/from Liverpool, which connects North Europe to the Mediterranean, was revised in late March by adding a call in Aliaga in its port rotation. The new journey is now as follows: Liverpool – Valencia – Barcelona – Piraeus – Izmir – Gebze – Gemlik – Tekirdag – Aliaga – Barcelona – Valencia – Sines – Liverpool.

ZIM

As of mid-April, ZIM will launch its new weekly Patagonia Express Service (PES) service connecting the United States with the port of Ushuaia, Argentina. The average weekly capacity of this service is 1100 TEU, and the port rotation will be: Houston – Ushuaia – Rio De Janeiro – Houston.

The carrier’s Thailand Fremantle Express (TFX) service was extended with three new port calls starting this month. The revised TFX rotation is now: Port Klang - Laem Chabang - Ho Chi Minh City – Nansha – Yantian – Sydney – Brisbane – Melbourne – Fremantle - Port Klang.

In addition, ZIM is redeploying six Bangkok-max ships out of its intra-Asia and Australia services and into the North America-South America ZIM Colibri XPress service. The rotation of this service is: San Antonio – Callao – Guayaquil – Cartagena – Kingston – Philadelphia – Miami – Kingston – Buenaventura – Guayaqui – Callao - San Antonio.

Making business even better…

Going Green

HMM announced it reached a milestone in its decarbonisation efforts. The carrier said in a statement, “The CO2 emissions generated when transporting 1TEU of container for 1km decreased from 68.7g in 2010 to 29.05g in 2021, representing a reduction of 57.7% over the last decade.”

Singapore-based carrier ONE has also announced the launch of an “Eco Calculator” that calculates carbon dioxide emissions from the vessels operated by the carrier. According to ONE’s press release, the tool “provides total distance and total CO2 emissions from Place of Receipt to Place of Delivery, including door locations.”

COSCO SHIPPING, CMA CGM and SIPG have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the supply of green marine methanol. According to the MOU, “the three parties will work together to procure, supply and deliver green marine methanol fuel for the future methanol dual-fuel fleets of CMA CGM and COSCO SHIPPING at major ports in China, including the Port of Shanghai.”

Investment

COSCO has ordered four 16,000 TEU newbuilds to be delivered in the second half of 2025. According to Splash247, the ships will be dual-fuel and methanol-ready and will join a dozen of 24,000 TEU ships ordered by the carrier in October 2022.

Similarly, CMA CGM ordered 16 newbuilds valued at over $3 billion. According to China's state media, this order is the “largest single-order for containerships ever placed in China,” reported G-Captain. The order consists of a dozen 15,000 TEU dual-fuel methanol vessels and four 23,000 TEU dual-fuel LNG vessels.

Financial

According to a press release issued by COSCO Shipping Holdings, operator of the world’s fourth-largest carrier, the company’s 2022 full-year profits increased by 26.5% from 2021 figures, reaching nearly $16 billion. The company achieved $56.9 billion in full-year revenues, a 17% increase from 2021. However, COSCO's profits witnessed a sharp decrease in Q4 2022, estimated at more than 60%. JOC reported that the drop was even larger during Q1 2023, reaching 75% year-on-year to $1 billion.

Hong Kong’s carrier OOCL experienced a similar drop in profits during this year’s fourth quarter. According to JOC, the carrier announced its revenues declined by 58% during the year’s first quarter. The revenue dropped to $2.2 billion in the January-March period, down from $5.2 billion in the 2022 first quarter.

Other

Container lines Maersk, MSC, HMM, OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd have decided to “cease charging container detention and demurrage fees to consignees on days a US marine terminal is closed,” reported JOC. On the topic, German carrier Hapag-Lloyd told its customers in an advisory, “We will not charge detention and demurrage for days when the gate is closed, and the port is non-operational due to holidays or any other events resulting in port closures.”