As practiced in previous years, Grand Alliance members Hapag-Lloyd, Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), have announced a winter program for their U.S. East Coast all water services.

The temporary service adjustments are intended to take effect from December 1, 2009 and will last for around 18 weeks.

The North & Central China East Coast Express (NCE) will provide enhanced coverage including a new call at Kingston. The Grand Alliance will provide seven 4,150-TEU vessels and ZIM will provide one 4,150-TEU vessel.

The new port rotation of the NCE will be as follows: Pusan / Qingdao / Ningbo/ Shanghai / Panama / Kingston / New York / Norfolk / Savannah / Kingston / Panama / Pusan.

The South China East Coast Express (SCE) service will be temporarily replaced by a combined service with the New York Express (NYX) service which is operated by The New World Alliance lines— APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL). In the newly combined loop, the Grand Alliance will provide three 3,800-TEU vessels out of 9 ships for 18 weeks.

The port rotation of the SCE during the winter program will be as follows: Shanghai / Ningbo / Shekou / Yantian / Hong Kong / Kaohsiung / Panama Canal / Manzanillo / New York / Norfolk / Savannah / Jacksonville / Miami / Manzanillo / Panama Canal / Balboa / Yokohama / Pusan / Shanghai.

Peter T. Leach
The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story

APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine, MOL to slash capacity by a third

Maersk Line and the three carriers that belong to the New World Alliance, APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine and MOL, on Tuesday said they will cut the capacity and services they share on the trans-Atlantic trade in the slack season starting from December.

The NWA carriers said the changes will reduce their existing capacity in the trans-Atlantic by around one third.

Maersk Line said it is withdrawing its Trans-Atlantic 3 (TA3) service between North America and Northern Europe in an effort to adjust capacity to better suit market demand.

“Trading and market conditions on the trans-Atlantic route warrant elimination of excess capacity between Europe and North America,” said Soren Castbak, senior director of Atlantic Services for Maersk Line.

Maersk Line will maintain its current port offering as today with those calls in the TA3 service being added to the Trans-Atlantic 1 (TA1) and Trans-Atlantic 2 (TA2) services.

Furthermore, Maersk Line will offer service to Antwerp as a part of the revised TA1.

The three NWA carriers said that while they are eliminating excess capacity from the trans-Atlantic, they are making enhancements on other routes that will ensure service reliability and rapid transit times.

The changes are as follows:

The ATN/TA3-Maersk Line loop between the U.S. East Coast and Europe, where APL and HMM have space, will be suspended as of December.

The segment of the APX/TA1-TNWA loop between the U.S. East Coast and Europe will include additional calls at Antwerp and Le Havre.

The revised port rotation for this segment will be: Manzanillo, Miami, Jacksonville, Savannah, Charleston, New York, Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Le Havre, New York, Norfolk, Charleston, Manzanillo, Los Angeles, and Oakland.

Maersk Line will continue to participate in the APX/TA1-TNWA loop as a slot charterer.

The ATS/TA2-Maersk Line rotation will include additional calls at New York, Savannah and Miami. An additional ship will be added to make this a six-vessel loop.

The revised rotation will be Houston, Mobile, Norfolk, Rotterdam, Felixstowe, Bremerhaven, New York, Charleston, Savannah, Miami, Houston.

Currently, APL, HMM, and MOL operate the space. After this change, APL and HMM will operate the space.

Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com.

On October 12, Maersk Line announced a change to its WestMed service in the Mediterranean to North America trade.

Maersk Line will replace its 5,000-TEU vessels with ships of 2,900-TEU capacity. This change comes as a result of the discontinuation of slot purchases by APL and Hapag Lloyd in the WestMed service.

“We strive to make our products flexible in order to best serve our customers’ needs,” said Søren Castbak, Senior Director of Atlantic trades for Maersk Line. “We will also continue to look for cost savings wherever possible, and in this case there is no impact to shippers. Here is an example where we must align our network to match customers’ volume requirements.”

Vessel phase-in will begin during November and continue for several weeks until all five of the vessels are replaced with the smaller ships. The service will maintain the same rotation, with the recently announced minimal adjustment to transits to accommodate the new schedule. CMA-CGM continues to operate the sixth vessel in the vessel sharing agreement.

On September 28, global shipper APL announced upgrades to its twice-a-week Miami service connecting the U.S. to Central America. NOL Group, parent company of container shipping leader APL, opened its new Americas headquarters here today and said it’s now better positioned than ever to support growth in global trade.

“We’ve got a new home and a keener focus on how best to serve international shippers,” said John Bowe, President of the Americas for Singapore-based NOL. “We’re in the perfect place to help customers manage their global supply chains.”

Singapore-based NOL has relocated its Americas headquarters from Oakland, Calif, to a new building at 16220 N. Scottsdale Road in Phoenix. NOL said the move to Phoenix was prompted by a desire to reduce headquarters costs and co-locate business units from around the country that need to work closely together.

NOL employs about 300 people in Phoenix. Approximately half of those were hired locally. The remainder transferred from Oakland and other U.S. locations. More than 2,000 people work for NOL throughout the Americas.

“We’re now centrally located to manage our operations throughout the Americas,” said Bowe. “What’s more, we’ve got adjacent functions all under the same roof and the result will be better, more responsive service for our customers.”

NOL’s primary business is 160-year-old APL, the world’s fifth-largest container shipping line. It also owns APL Logistics, the global supply chain management business, and a Terminals division that manages four U.S. West Coast terminals and two others in Asia.

Staff in the new Phoenix headquarters will oversee all of those activities for NOL in North, Central and South America.

The company provides container transportation and logistics support for many of the largest multinational corporations. APL’s fleet of 140 container ships connects the U.S. to Asia, Europe and Latin America. The shipping line also manages rail and truck transport for customers’ cargo in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

APL Logistics and Con-way Freight announced August 5, 2009, that their OceanGuaranteed service for less-than-container load (LCL) cargo from Asia will now reach all major metropolitan markets in Mexico.

The 3-year-old program combines ocean and truck transportation to deliver cargo to a customer’s store door. APL Logistics and Con-way Freight launched OceanGuaranteed to compete with air freight carriers.

With the addition of Mexico, origin ports in Asia are now connected for the first time to every major North American market via day-definite delivery. OceanGuaranteed cargo will be transported on dedicated Con-way Freight trucks from Los Angeles to Laredo, Texas. From there cargo will cross the border to Mexico, with delivery via a Con-way Freight affiliate to the final destination.

“We’re already serving most of the continent with day-definite service,” said APL Logistics President Jim McAdam. “We’re pleased that we can now extend OceanGuaranteed throughout North America by incorporating the very important Mexican market.”

OceanGuaranteed cargo moves from Asia on vessels operated by APL. Con-way Freight then transports shipments to final destinations. The service includes late-gate privileges at origin ports and first-off priority at the Port of Los Angeles where the vessels arrive.

Beginning January 6, APL will route its Central America service through the Port of Miami. APL’s Central America Express (CAX) and its companion service — the CX2 — will move from Port Everglades to Miami.

Miami will be the only U.S. port of call for the service, which connects Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador with APL’s major European and Latin American trade routes.

The twice-weekly CAX is one of three APL services reaching Central America.

“By routing through Miami, shippers on the CAX can connect to APL’s Atlantic Pacific Express and Atlantic North service for shipments to-and-from Europe. They can also use Miami to link up with APL’s New York Express for other major ports of call in Latin America, as well as Asia,” said Carlos Velez, Vice President and Managing Director for APL in Latin America.

In addition to synchronizing their supply chains, Velez said the switch in ports will enable shippers to benefit from increased cargo-handling efficiency. Miami recently opened an automated 16-lane gate to speed traffic at the port.

Turn times at the port — the amount of time it takes a trucker to deliver one container and pick up another — have averaged just 30 minutes. That is one of the best performance records of any U.S. port, Velez indicated.

The New World Alliance (TNWA) carriers — Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), APL, and Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) — and the Grand Alliance (GA) lines — Hapag-Lloyd, Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) — on November 25 announced plans for a joint Asia-U.S. East Coast service.

From December 3, 2008, the carriers will combine the TNWA’s NYX (New York Express) service and the GA’s South China Express Service (SCE). The service will be a nine-ship loop, with TNWA and GA providing five and four ships, respectively.

The revised port rotation is Shanghai, Shekou, Yantian, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Panama Canal, Manzanillo, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Miami, Manzanillo, Panama Canal, Balboa, Los Angeles, Busan, and Shanghai.