A2B-online Container B.V. added a fourth weekly sailing on its service between Hutchison Ports London Thamesport and Moerdijk in The Netherlands from 18th April. The first sailing was placed in the hands of the 3,999gt/1998 built A2B Spirit (above, ex-Norfeeder), a Sietas 151 type 508 TEU container ship, the fourth of this class owned and operated by A2B. The company is a multi-modal short-sea operator specialising in full load, part load and pallet consignments to and from the United Kingdom, Benelux and Germany. It offers reliable short sea services from the port of Moerdijk including a door-to-door service with its own fleet of 1,400 45ft containers.

APL announced on 13th April that its China Philippines Express 1 (CP1) service will be making additional calls at the Chinese port of Xiamen and Batangas in the Philippines. This development extends the market coverage of the shortsea service that links South China and the Philippines. Each week, the enhanced CP1 service will call directly at the port of Batangas, facilitating shipments into and out of the economically-thriving Calabarzon region in the Philippines. The improved CP1 service commenced from Xiamen on 15th April with the following new port rotation: Xiamen-Hong Kong-Nansha-Shekou-North Manila-South Manila-Batangas-Xiamen.

In conjunction with Hamburg Sud, APL has also launched new services to tap growing volume between Asia and Mexico, as imports from China last year rose 12.9% to 632,844 TEU. The new APL route, Quetzal Express (QEX), runs weekly and connects China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong with Mexico and west coast South America (WCSA), with a sailing time of 22 days to get from South China to Mexico. Other port calls on the route are Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The eastbound route will carry Mexican fruit and perishable goods as well as imported manufactured goods from South China. The arrival of the new service follows APL’s launch of three others in February that link Asia and Mexico, each calling at one or more Latin American ports in Columbia, Ecuador, Chile, and Central America.

Borealis Maritime has acquired the 27,061gt/2006 built and 2,510 TEU capacity Hermes. This follows closely on from the purchase of the 25,406gt/2005 built and 3,421 TEU capacity HS Rossini in February. The company now has 64 ships.

COSCO Shipping’s latest container vessel, the 196,257gt/2018 built Cosco Shipping Gemini (above), with a capacity of 20,119 TEU, was delivered to her owner on 10th April at the shipyard in Dalian, China. The newbuild is 399.8m long, 58.6m wide with a 30.5m draught.

Garthcfiff Shipping of the UK has acquired its first vessel, the 14,278gt/2001 built feeder containership Sentosa, from German owner Norddeutsch Reederei. The purchase was possible thanks to a $5m investment to the company by Downing LLp. Greece‘s Conbulk Shipmanagement will provide the technical management of the vessel. Garthcliff Shipping was incorporated in May 2017.

Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) officially confirmed its plans to order 350,000 TEU of new capacity, including 12 x 20,000 + TEU capacity vessels and eight 14,000 TEU ships in April. This is part of HMM’s strategy to build a fleet with a 1 million TEU capacity. Currently HMM is the 12th largest container line with a fleet of around 340,000 TEU capacity. The funds for the newbuilds will come from the scheme launched by the South Korean government’s Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries in the wake of the collapse of Hanjin Shipping in August 2016. Established as the Korea Maritime Promotion Corporation (KMPC) with an initial capital of $4.5 billion its role is to support the nation’s ailing shipping industry which saw its reputation shattered by the sudden bankruptcy of Hanjin, then the world’s 7th largest carrier. The delivery of the new ULCVs would coincide with the end of HMM’s slot charter contract with the 2M partners Maersk Line and MSC as well as the sulphur emissions deadline. The latter will most probably see the newbuilds equipped with scrubbers to allow them to continue using the cheaper Heavy Fuel Oil.

KMTC took delivery of the 28,517gt KMTC Surabaya (above) on 12th April from Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. The 2,800 TEU capacity and 21 knot Container Carrier is 200m long with a 35.2m beam and 11.5 loaded draught. She is powered by a M.A.N B&W 7G60ME C9.5 engine.

Maersk Line has invested $280m to acquire six secondhand containerships from the German Commerzbank. The vessels were already being chartered by the company and are the 13,092 TEU/141,754gt Maersk Eureka and Maersk Edirne, built in 2012, the 4,800 TEU/48,338gt HS Shackleton and HS Baffin, both built in 2013, plus the 4,800 TEU/50,885gt Merkur Harbour and the 4,255 TEU Rio Conneticut, built in 2012. The 34,882gt/2018 built Vistula Maersk has entered service on Seago Line’s North Europe feeder link between Rotterdam, Netherlands and St. Petersburg, Russia. She made her first call at the latter on 20th April. The next vessel in the series will be the Volga Maersk, highlighting Maersk and Seago Line’s commitment to serving the Russian market. During the coming months, five other sisters, Vayenga Maersk, Venta Maersk, Vuoksi Maersk, Vilnia Maersk, plus an un-named unit, will join the Vistula and Volga in enhancing a number of Seago Line services in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The new 200m long/35.2m beam, 11m draught and 28 crew ships are the world’s largest ice-class container vessels, designed specifically for operation in winter conditions (down to -25 degrees Celsius). They are powered by a MAN B&W engine, have a nominal capacity for 3,596 TEU and are being built by the COSCO Zhoushan Shipyard in China .

Milaha of Qatar has launched the first ever container feeder service between Qatar and Iraq by extending its Qatar-Kuwait service launched last year to also cover Iraq with calls at Hamad Port (Qatar)-Umm Qasr (Iraq)-Shuwaikh (Kuwait)-Hamad Port. A 1,015 TEU capacity vessel, was deployed for the first trip from Hamad Port on 7th May.

MSC has awarded MAN Diesel & Turbo the contract for main and auxiliary engines to be fitted to the shipping company’s eleven new 23,000 TEU capacity container vessels. The main engine per ship will be a single MAN B&W 11G95ME-C9.5 unit. Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) will construct six of the vessels while Daewoo Shipping Marine Engineering (DSME) will construct the remainder. The ‘G’ prefix on a MAN B&W engine means it has a design with an ultra-long stroke that reduces engine speed, thereby paving the way for ship designs with unprecedented high-efficiency. This lower optimum engine speed allows the use of a larger propeller and is, ultimately, significantly more efficient in terms of engine propulsion. Together with an optimised engine design, this means that the MSC newbuildings will enjoy reduced fuel consumption and reduced CO2 emissions. MAN Diesel & Turbo has to date a total of 71 G95 engines on order, of which 23 have already entered service. Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI-EMD) will construct the ME-C engines for SHI, while Doosan Engine will construct those for DSME. The final vessel in the series is due for delivery by 15th March 2020. The auxiliary engines will be three MAN 9L32/40 and two MAN 6L32/40 units per ship, all to be constructed by STX Engine in Korea. The MAN Diesel & Turbo press release was also the first firm indication that the new ships have a 23,000 TEU capacity.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) has launched its first container ship, the 14,000-TEU ONE Minato at the Imabari Shipbuilding in Japan. The ONE ships are gradually adopting an eye catching pink livery. Two of the group’s newbuilds are the 150,000gt ONE Stork and ONE Aguila, which are under construction at the Japan Marine United shipyard in Kure, Japan (above).

OOCL launched a new JKH service from Hong Kong and South China to Japan from the second half of May 2018. The service commenced with the departure of the 17,134gt/1990 built Wan Hai 205 from Shekou on 26th May on the port rotation of Shekou, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Hakata and Moj.

ProCargo Line emerged onto the shipping scene on 19th April to connect the Italian ports of Marina di Carrara and Cagliari with Sousse, Sfax and Zarzis in Tunisia. ProCargo Line is controlled by

Grendi, and partners and has acquired the 8,707gt/1992 built Ro-Ro vessel Altinia to transport a projected 200,000t of cargo in the first 12 months.

Seatrade and StreamLines announced a strategic co-operation agreement with Hapag-Lloyd commencing with a Slot Charter Agreement covering the East Coast of North America to Europe as from 13th April. Seatrade will be offering, through its affiliated company StreamLines, weekly services for Reefer Cargo in containers, from the ports of Savannah, Charleston and Norfolk, into London, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bremerhaven and Le Havre.

Sinokor Merchant Marine of South Korea is taking over a fleet of 30 feeder containerships from Dutch owner Vroon. The latter company is currently under a financial restructuring process and the ships concerned range in capacity from 700 to 1,700 TEU.

Wan Hai Lines commenced a new service connecting Indonesia to Singapore and Malaysia with a maiden departure from Port Klang on 20th April. The service which will be jointly operated with Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation and is named The Strait-Java 1 (SJ1) Service with calls at Port Klang, Singapore, Jakarta, Surabaya, Jakarta and Port Klang on a 14 day round trip basis.