CMA CGM Sets Joint Loop with CSAV, CSCL

Carriers seek to maintain service while cutting capacity in weak environment

Moving to trim down capacity in a tight market, container lines CMA CGM, CSAV and China Shipping Container Lines said Thursday they are combining their direct services between the Far East, Mexico and the Caribbean into a single, coordinated loop.

This new agreement allows CMA CGM to optimize the quality of its direct service between Asia, Mexico and the Caribbean, while adjusting its tonnage deployment to the current environment,” said Laurent Falguière, CMA CGM’s vice president for Caribbean and Latin America Lines.

The joint operation, which will launch in mid-July, is the latest in a series of efforts by liner companies around the world to use vessel-sharing agreements to maintain service while reducing capacity.

CMA CGM last month announced an enhanced agreement with China’s CSCL on joint Asia-Middle East service. The latest service, covering 16 port calls from Hong Kong to the Caribbean and back, will bring in Chile’s CSAV.

Falguière said it represents “ability to adapt rapidly to market evolutions, improving once more the service provided to its customers.”

The route will include 10 vessels — five from CSAV, four from CMA and one from China Shipping — with about 4,300-TEUs of capacity and start July 17. 

 

Source: Journal of Commerce