Our bi-weekly carrier update brings you the latest news about the new and updated sea freight services our top carriers offer on main trade routes. It also covers relevant activities the carriers announced in the past two weeks. Additionally, we seek to provide a brief outlook of the capacities available for the next two calendar weeks on key trade lanes.

New & updated services on main trade lanes

Mediterranean/Black Sea <-> South America

Hapag-Lloyd added a port call at Manzanillo this month to its MSW service, connecting the Mediterranean and South America West Coast. According to Sea Intelligence, the carrier deploys eight vessels on this service with an average vessel capacity of 2,700 TEU. The new port rotation of the service is: Guayaquil – Manzanillo (Panama) – Puerto Limon – Cartagena (Colombia) – Tangier – Malaga – Valencia – Civitavecchia – Livorno – Genoa – Barcelona – Caucedo – Cartagena (Colombia) – Buenaventura – Paita – Posorja – Guayaquil.

Intra-South America

CMA CGM is updating its Manaus Shuttle service by adding a new call in Fortaleza, Brazil. Starting July, this intra-South America service would be organized as follows: Cartagena – Kingston - Manzanillo -Manaus - Vila do Conde - Fortaleza - Cartagena. A report by Mundo Maritimo adds that five ships will be deployed for the Manaus Shuttle with an average capacity of 3,000 TEU.

Intra-Asia

Starting this month, CMA CGM subsidiary CNC is introducing several updates to their intra-Asia services as follows:

• New North China Booster weekly service connecting Dalian – Qingdao – Busan – Kwangyang – Busan – Dalian.
• Changing the frequency of the MCT service from ten to seven days. (Shanghai – Keelung – Taichung – Kaohsiung – Ningbo – Shanghai).
• Adding a port call at Yokkaichi in the JPX service, where four vessels are deployed with an average capacity of 3,500 TEU. New rotation is: Manila – Tokyo – Yokohama – Omaezaki – Yokkaichi – Nagoya – Kobe – Singapore – Port Klang – Manila.

Maersk will add a new port call to its Shaheen Express starting 3 July, as announced by the carrier. The rotation of the Shaheen Express will be: Jebel Ali - Mundra - Pipavav - Jebel Ali - and Sohar.

North Europe <-> South America

MSC is adding port calls in North America to their Ecuador-to-NWC service. The service will now have calls at Boston and Halifax ports, says a report by the Journal of Commerce (JOC). The updated port rotation of the service is: Antwerp – Rotterdam – Bremerhaven – Halifax – Boston – Freeport – Balboa – Guayaquil - Puerto Bolivar – Paita – Manzanillo - Puerto Moin – Antwerp.

German carrier Hapag-Lloyd has also updated its SWX service, which connects Latin America with North Europe. The carrier added the 10,500 TEU MV Santos Express to the service and a new port call at Le Havre (starting 2 September). The new SWX rotation will be: Rotterdam - London Gateway – Hamburg – Antwerp - Le Havre - Caucedo - Cartagena - Manzanillo - Buenaventura - Posorja - Callao - San Antonio. 

North America <-> North Europe

Hapag-Lloyd added a weekly eastbound call from Canada’s St. John Port to its AL5 service. The port rotation of the North America – North Europe service becomes as follows: Southampton - Le Havre - Rotterdam - Hamburg - Antwerp - Halifax - Port Everglades - Cartagena - Rodman - Los Angeles - Oakland - Rodman - Cartagena - Caucedo - Saint John - Halifax – Southampton. 

Middle East <-> North Europe

CMA CGM announced upgrading the setup of its North Europe - East Med/Levant service titled NC Levant. The carrier is adding a northbound call in Salerno, Italy and a sixth vessel of 4,420 TEU average capacity. The new rotation of this sercive is as follows: Felixstowe - Hamburg - Rotterdam - Antwerp - Le Havre - Malta - Alexandria - Port Said West - Beirut - Iskenderun - Mersin - Salerno - Tanger Med – Felixstowe.

A report by Container News revealed that Israeli carrier ZIM is adding the port of Thessaloniki in Greece to the rotation of its Levant - Black Sea Express (LBX) service. The port rotation of the updated service is: Haifa - Alexandria - Constanta - Varna - Istanbul Ambarli - Thessaloniki – Aliaga (Izmir) - Antalya - Alexandria – Haifa.

North America <-> South America

Another update introduced by Hapag-Lloyd is removing the call at Kingston Port on its GCS service. The GCS connects North America’s East Coast to Central America/Caribbean via three vessels with an average capacity of 2,800 TEU. The revised port rotation for this service is: Caucedo – Houston – Altamira – Veracruz – Puerto Barrios – Puerto Cortes – Caucedo.

Asia <-> Africa 

CMA CGM introduced a new weekly service titled TLX (Turkey Libya Express), which will take off starting 1 July. The TLX connects Asia with Turkey, Libya and Red Sea starting from Shanghai. The port rotation of this service will be: Shanghai - Ningbo - Nansha - Singapore - Jeddah - Iskenderun - Malta - Misurata - Jeddah - Port Klang – Shanghai. 

Intra-North Europe 

MSC is launching a new Baltic Loop 01 service, connecting Belgium with the Baltic Sea. The service deploys one vessel with a capacity of 1,300 TEU. The following is the port rotation is: Antwerp – Oslo – Halmstad – Copenhagen – Antwerp.

On the other hand, Taiwanese carrier Evergreen is revising the port rotation of the GPM/BSX service it operates with Arkas Line. A port call at Constanza will be added to the rotation to become as follows: Piraeus – Poti – Constantza – Varna – Piraeus. Two vessels are deployed for this service with an average capacity of 1,100 TEU. 

Trade capacity outlook (weeks 24 - 27)

Capacities made available on most trade lanes are showing growth compared to last year. The highest capacity growth is on the Mediterranean/Black Sea - North America East Coast trade, forecasted to increase by 41.1% in the upcoming 12 weeks compared to 2022. With -1.5% year-on-year decrease, capacity on North Europe – South America East Coast was the only trade with negative development forecasted for the next 12 weeks. The following illustrates the development of available capacity on both the eastbound and westbound of certain trades.

This week we present the available capacity for Asia – North Europe and North Europe - North America East Coast. According to the data provided by Sea Intelligence, capacity on Asia - North Europe is forecasted to increase by 13.3% in the upcoming 12 weeks compared to 2022.

Capacity on North Europe – North America East Coast is forecasted to increase 34.1% in the upcoming 12 weeks compared to 2022.

More in carrier news…

New containerships enter the market

Five new boxships are on the way for container carrier Yang Ming. This is the first newbuilding deal for the carrier in four years, reports Lloyd’s List, and it comes as part of its plan to boost the energy efficiency of its fleet. The ships will have a 15,500 TEU capacity and will be equipped with high-pressure LNG dual-fuel main engines, adds the news agency.

MSC is no stranger to the newbuilds market. The largest container carrier in the world is now exploring options to build new dual-fuel vessels with 8,000 TEU capacity. A Shipping Watch report revealed that the liner plans to have a series of container vessels that sail on both methanol and LNG.

Meanwhile, COSCO Shipping ordered a methanol fuel supply system to upgrade four 16,000 TEU container vessels. The system will be designed to fit the technical characteristics of the ships, according to Port Technology.

The market also welcomed new mega-sized containers this month. Asian carriers OOCL and Ocean Network Express (ONE) recently received three 24,000+ TEU ships. OOCL Piraeus and OOCL Turkiye are 24,188 TEU in capacity, while ONE Innovation is 24,000 TEU in capacity. In a statement issued by the carrier, ONE plans to deploy its new mega vessel in its Asia – Europe FE3 service under THE Alliance.

And in a green energy breakthrough, Maersk announced it will launch a new 2,100 TEU feeder vessel that will be “the world’s first-ever container vessel sailing on green methanol.” The launch date is set to 14 September, said the carrier.