Grand Alliance announces new direct Vietnam (Cai Mep) call

Grand Alliance partners Hapag-Lloyd (HL), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) announced they will add a direct Vietnam call at Cai Mep deepwater port to their Asia East Coast Express (AEX) service, from 9th of January 2010. This additional link is a further improvement of the Grand Alliance service network.
Port rotation of the AEX will be as follows:
 Cai Mep / Laem Chabang/ Singapore/ Colombo/ Cagliari / Halifax/ New York/ Savannah/ Norfolk/ New York/ Halifax/ Cagliari/ Jeddah/ Colombo/ Singapore/ Cai Mep.
GA partners will deploy 10 x 5,500 TEU vessels on the AEX service (currently served by 9 x 5,500 TEU vessels). The Grand Alliance, formed in 1998, is the leading integrated consortium in global container shipping. Its members are presently Hapag-Lloyd (Germany), NYK (Japan) OOCL (Hong Kong), and MISC Berhad (Malaysia). MISC will withdraw from the Grand Alliance as of January 1, 2010 and is therefore not mentioned in this agreement. 
   

(Source: Transport Weekly)