China Europe Express (CEX) service adds Hamburg call

LOOP D of the China Europe Express (CEX) service jointly operated by Grand Alliance ocean liners, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK Line and OOCL, together with New World Alliance carriers, APL, MOL and HMM, has added a call at Hamburg with the arrival of the 6,182-TEU NYK Lyra.

This comes in addition to the services that the two alliances operate separately that also call at the port.

APL, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK and OOCL use a total of 10 containerships on the service, ranging from 5,700- to 7,500 TEU.

A round trip takes 70 days, with ships sailing from Hamburg through the Suez Canal and then directly to Singapore (transit time: 21 days), and from there to the Chinese ports of Shenzhen-Chiwan, Shenzhen-Shekou, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenzhen-Shekou and Shenzhen-Yantian. The return leg has another stop at Singapore before going to Northern Europe.

Since the beginning of the year, three new scheduled liner services linking Hamburg and the Far East have commenced operations, bringing the total number of services on this route to 29. Additional new services have already been announced for May, a statement from Hamburg's port authorities said.

There have also been three additions to existing feeder services in 2010, with 50 feeder services operating between Hamburg and the Baltic region at present. A large proportion of Far East cargo transhipped through Hamburg goes to the Baltic region aboard feeder ships.

(Source: www.schednet.com)