Maersk, MSC buys rivals' slots on AAS to extend Asia-Oz coverage

DENMARK's container shipping giant Maersk and its runner up rival Geneva-based MSC are both buying slots on the Asia-Australia AAS service run by Hapag-Lloyd, Hamburg Sud, HMM, APL and Evergreen.

The upgraded AAS will be described as "Yoyo" by Maersk and "New Panda" by MSC and will connect Taiwan and South China to Australia. The new slots will complete the Maersk and MSC 'Boomerang/ New Wallaby' service.

Recently established Iranian carrier HDS lines will be adding a direct call to Istanbul on its Far East-Med service (AMEL) and dropping the calls to Nhava Sheva and Karachi. The service will deploy eight 6,500-TEU ships with a port rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen/Chiwan, Laem Chabang, Singapore, Jeddah, Damietta, Istanbul, Marsaxlokk, Singapore, Shanghai.

MOL will see the addition of Vigo in both directions to its North Europe-West Africa service (ARN) launched in May last year to retain the framework of the New World Alliance. Port rotation: Zeebrugge, Antwerp, Felixstowe, Vigo, Tangier, Lagos, Tema, Takoradi, Abidjan, Vigo, Zeebrugge.

The Maersk FM-1 service will drop Shenzhen/Yantian and instead call at Hong Kong effective immediately, with its Shanghai stop from Waigaoqiao to Yangshan as of early February. New rotation will be Xingang, Qingdao, Shanghai/Yangshan, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Dachan Bay, Tanjung Pelepas, Jebel Ali, Dammam, Bandar Abbas, Jebel Ali, Singapore, Xingang.

(Source: www.schednet.com)