French box liner CMA CGM and its Ocean Three partners United Arab Shipping Company and China Shipping Container Lines have agreed to collapse two Asia-Europe services into one new loop as part of their capacity cutting effort.
CMA CGM is replacing its FAL2 and FAL3 services with FAL23, which it describes as a new optimized service that offers improved transit times. The string also adds a new call to Vietnam which the company regards as “an increasingly important developing market.”
The FAL23 service will provide better transit times especially between Asia and Le Havre, Rotterdam and Antwerp and have a new call at Cai Mep Deep Sea terminal in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The sling begins October 13 in Asia, deploying twelve 12,000- to 15,000-TEUs vessels. Port rotation will be Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Cai Mep, Port Klang, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Jeddah, Port Klang, Chiwan, and Shanghai.
The new rotation will start in the eastbound from Antwerp on September 28 with the CMA CGM La Perouse.
At the same time, the company announced it has upgraded its FAL1 and FAL8 loops.
A new call at Qingdao has been added on the FAL1 service as from mid-August 2015, and transit times from Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian and Port Klang to Algeciras, Southampton, Dunkirk, and Hamburg will be reduced by three days.
The rotation is Tianjin, Dalian, Pusan, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, Port Klang, Algeciras, Southampton, Dunkirk, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Malta, Khor Fakkan, Yantian, and Tianjin.
Meanwhile, starting October 13, CMA CGM will add Xiamen on its FAL8 service. The new rotation is Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Yantian, Port Klang, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hambourg, Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, Port Klang, Yantian, and Qingdao.
Photo: Thomas Fries
