Grand Alliance Changes Service

The Grand Alliance (GA) carriers – Hapag-Lloyd (HL), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) – announced a revised Asia-US East Coast service, which will include the New World Alliance (NWA) lines – APL, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) and Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL)

For this purpose the South China Express Service (SCE) of the GA will be temporarily adjusted to cover also the additional ports of the New York Express Service (NYX) of the NWA. The GA and NWA have agreed to jointly operate the loop for a period of 18 weeks as a seasonal arrangement.

The SCE will move from an eight to nine ship loop in order to cover the additional ports without increasing the average speed in order to limit the additional bunker consumption for the benefit of the environment. The NWA and GA will provide five and four ships, respectively.

The revised SCE service will make additional eastbound calls at Yantian and Manzanillo. Further Miami, Manzanillo, Balboa, San Pedro, Busan and Shanghai have been added. The revised SCE port rotation is Shanghai, Shekou, Yantian, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Panama Canal, Manzanillo, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Miami, Manzanillo, Balboa, San Pedro, Busan, Shanghai.

The revised SCE service will continue to be complemented by the GA’s other Asia-US East Coast via the Panama Canal services - the NCE (North China Express) and PAX (Pacific Atlantic Express).

The service changes have been made to ensure continuation of the service network by adjusting capacity to the seasonal demand of our customers.

(www.hapag-lloyd.com)