Evergreen Marine Corporation and COSCO Shipping Lines will replace 13,000 TEU vessels with 20,000 TEU ships on their jointly operated Far East-Mediterranean service.
The 20,000 TEU ships will be deployed from the companies’ Far East-North Europe services, which will then operate with the 13,000 TEU ships.
Tonnage Snap
Alphaliner’s latest report stated that the tonnage swap between the loops is due to the re-routing of all of OCEAN Alliance’s Far East – Europe services through the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the threat of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
Solution
OCEAN Alliance saw a solution in upgrading the aforementioned Far East-Mediterranean service, marketed as AEM1 by COSCO and MD2 by Evergreen, to run on 20,000 TEU ships. The service has been revised to turn in 14 weeks (three extra) with Piraeus as the first European port of call, before the vessels call at other Mediterranean ports in Italy, France and Spain.
Weekly sailings difficult
Alphaliner however, cautioned that it will be difficult for the CES/NEU7 to maintain weekly sailings without the 20,000 TEU ships.
The 14,424 TEU Theseus joined the service at the end of February, to be followed by the 13,808 TEU Thalassa Mana on 17 May and Thalassa Doxa on 19 June, but this still leaves many gaps in the forward schedule.
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Source : Containernews
