Rising demand prompts new offering, service changes in Asia

CONTAINER shipping lines are continuing to launch new services or amend existing ones, including one new intra-Asia service and three service revisions on the Asia-Middle East trade route as demand continues to pick, after 2009 proved to be one of the toughest on record for the industry.

South Korean carrier Nam Sung plans to commence a new service that calls at ports in South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand, starting from March 6 with the first sailing from Busan. The service is expected to deploy three 1,000-TEU vessels.

Nam Sung has until now focussed on serving the South Korea-Japan and South Korea-China trades, reports AXS-Alphaliner, which said that "connections to Japan and Northern China will be ensured through Nam Sung's network in North East Asia."

The port rotation for the new service is: Busan, Ulsan, Kwangyang, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Laem Chabang, Hong Kong and back to Busan.

"Nam Sung has been involved in Thailand and Southern Vietnam since August 2009, when it started to serve these areas through slots on the Bien Dong Shipping Co Vietnam-Thailand service," the newsletter said.

MISC has amended its East Asia-Middle East-India Halal Express 2 service (HE2) by dropping port calls at Yokohama and Nagoya and adding port calls at Qingdao and Busan, with effect from January 28.

The port rotation for the HE2, which uses six 4,500-TEU ships is: Qingdao, Busan, Shanghai, Xiamen, Singapore, Port Kelang, Colombo, Nhava Sheva, Jebel Ali, Dammam, Karachi, Port Kelang, Singapore, returning to Qingdao.

The Asia-Middle East WAX/CMI service jointly operated by APL and MOL has been on a revised rotation since January 8 when the service stopped calling at Kaohsiung on the eastbound leg of the journey and started calling at Ningbo.

The newsletter said that starting from February the service will call at the Middle East ports of Dammam and Bahrain in addition to the existing Jebel Ali call.

It said a sixth ship, the 5,016-TEU APL Coral, is being added to the extended rotation. The vessels used on the service range in size from 5,000 to 6,400 TEU.

The revised port rotation is: Busan, Kwangyang, Qingdao, Ningbo, Singapore, Jebel Ali, Dammam, Bahrain, Singapore, Ningbo, Busan.

"K" Line and Wan Hai Lines are phasing-in larger vessels on their jointly operated China-Middle East CMS/CSG service, starting from February when the six x 4,250-TEU box ships currently used to operate the service will be replaced by larger vessels of between 5,600 and 6,000 TEU.

This move is expected to raise the capacity of the service by 35 per cent each week.

The port rotation for the CMS/CSG service is: Qingdao, Lianyungang, Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Shekou, Singapore, Port Kelang, Jebel Ali, Bandar Abbas, Karachi, Mundra, Port Kelang, Singapore, Hong Kong and Qingdao.

(Source: www.schednet.com)