ISSUED ON BEHALF OF THE GRAND ALLIANCE
The member lines of the Grand Alliance have announced new Asia-Europe and Transpacific services starting from July 2005. Eight weekly services will be provided between Asia and Europe and 11 on the Transpacific, including four all-water US East Coast loops.
The Grand Alliance has decided to expand its service network to keep pace with the continued growth in global container traffic. The member lines of Hapag-Lloyd Container Line (HLCL), Malaysia International Shipping Corp. (MISC), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) and P&O Nedlloyd (PONL) will set up two new loops, one between Asia-Europe and another between Asia and the West Coast of North America, at the beginning of July 2005 – in addition to their existing services.
‘Loop F’, the new Asia-Europe service, will call at Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Kaohsiung, Singapore, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Southampton, Gioia Tauro, Singapore, Xiamen and back to Shanghai. The round-trip voyage time for the weekly link will be 56 days. The partners will deploy eight vessels, each capable of carrying about 4,500 TEUs for this service.
The new ‘Northwest Express Service’ for North America will call at Ningbo, Shanghai, Qindao, Pusan, and at Seattle and Vancouver on the US West Coast, before returning to Ningbo, the round voyage taking 35 days. Five ships each with a capacity for 2,900 TEUs will be deployed for this service.
In addition to the two new loops, there will be additional quality improvements to the existing Asia-Europe route. Loop A will add an eastbound Amsterdam call, Loop B will call at a new terminal in Antwerp, and Loop E will now feature a direct call into Laem Chabang. In the Mediterranean, Loop M will change ports in Italy from La Spezia to Genoa. These changes are currently being implemented and are expected to be completed around the end of 3Q of 2005. In addition to the enhanced coverage, the Grand Alliance will continue to provide additional capacity to cater for market growth.
On the Transpacific route, in anticipation of congestion during the 2005 peak season on the US West Coast, rotations have been streamlined and improved.
The Grand Alliance will be able to maintain its schedule integrity to its major ports by establishing new loops and reducing the number of ports-of-call per service on some of the loops.
These attractive amendments enable the Grand Alliance to continue improving its services and setting new standards in liner shipping.
