Three carriers to begin direct Europe/WCSA service

CMA CGM, Hapag Lloyd and Hamburg Sud will in January start a new service linking northern Europe with Central America and the West Coast of South America, breaking away from a similar CSAV service in which they chartered slots.

   The new service will offer slightly decreased capacity compared to the previous service, CSAV's Eurosal 2, using eight ships of 1,700 to 2,000 TEUs, compared to eight ships with capacities of 2,226 to 2,524 TEUs on the CSAV service. The new service, dubbed ES2, has nearly the same port coverage as the CSAV service.

   The port rotation for the new ES2 service, to begin Jan. 12 from Rotterdam, is: Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Port of Spain, La Guair Puerto Cabello, Willemstad, Cartagen, Manzanillo (Panama), Guayaquil, Callao, Paita, Guayaquil, Manzanillo, Cartagena, Caucedo and Rotterdam.

   The existing service's port coverage, according to ComPair Data, is: Rotterdam, Hamburg, Tilbury, Antwerp, Le Havre, Port of Spain, Puerto Cabello, Curacao, Cartagena, Balboa, Manzanillo, Guayaquil, Callao, Paita, Guayaquil, Buenaventura, Balboa, Manzanillo, Caucedo, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Tilbury, Antwerp and Le Havre.

   CMA CGM said it will provide two of the vessels on the new service, but no details were given on which carriers would provide the other six. The three carriers added that to make up for ports not covered on the new loop, it has two other sailings linking the same regions -- the ECS, a 100 percent CMA CGM-operated service, and the EC1, a Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd jointly operated service linking northern Europe with the Caribbean, Peru and Chile.

   This new agreement allows CMA CGM to directly operate vessels between North Europe and the West Coast of South America via Panama, said Sabrina Youbi, the carrier's line manager in charge of these services. 

Source: American Shipper