Grand Alliance, Zim to fold one FE-US east coast loop into another

GRAND Alliance members, OOCL, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK as well as Zim, will suspend their joint Far East US east coast South China East Coast Express for 16 to 18 weeks starting in December, reports Paris-based AXS Alphaliner.

Customers will then be directed to the alliance's eight-4,900-TEU ship loop, the North & Central China East Coast Express (NCE). The suspension is expected to take place in December and the service resumed in April, said Alphaliner, adding that Zim will join provide one ship.

Additional calls will be made at Kingston and Cristobal to shore up transhipment links on the Caribbean and US Gulf. But Manzanillo, Panama, will be dropped from the loop, said the report.

The new NCE will have the following rotation: Busan, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Balboa, Kingston, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Kingston, Cristobal and back to Busan.

 

Source: Transport Weekly