Container Fleets

APL revealed details of a new weekly China Southeast Asia Express (CSX) service on 8th January 2019 that directly connects Hong Kong, South China, Taiwan to four ports in the Philippines. Each week, the new service will call the Philippines ports of Subic Bay, Batangas, General Santos and Davao. The CSX service commenced from Hong Kong on 18th January, calling at Hong Kong, Chiwan, Kaohsiung, Subic Bay, Batangas, General Santos and Davao.

BG Freight (a subsidiary of Maersk Line) has relocated its Immingham-Europe service to Hull Container Terminal, following shipper concerns over accessibility. The 800-TEU capacity weekly sailing moved on 12th January to Hull. Both Humberside ports are owned and operated by Associated British Ports (ABP), which has recently invested £50m into developing both terminals, doubling Hull’s capacity to 240,000 TEU per year. Alongside this, Hull has trebled its weekly container sailings from 5 to 16 in 2018.

CMA CGM announced mid-December that it was dropping the subsidiary brand name of APL (originally American President Lines) from intra-Asia services in a merger with Cheng Lie Navigation (CNC) where the latter identity is retained for this market. There have been 15 APL and 50 CNC weekly services that serve the key markets from North Asia to Southeast Asia along the Far East corridor so the disappearance of the smaller operation was predictable. CMA CGM’s Short Sea Lines Med commenced its own Intra-Egypt feeder as from 27th December from Port Said weekly with a rotation as follows: Port Said West-Port Said East-Alexandria Old Port-Alexandria El Dekheila-Damietta-Port Said West. The ship was the 8,443gt/1999 built and 500 TEU capacity CMA CGM Lotus. In an effort to maintain the high service reliability and punctuality of the MOZEX service, the company has shortened this Asia to Tamatave route by 7 days with a direct call to Maputo after Pointe des Galets. Tamatave will be served on a weekly basis in relay by the dedicated feeder service via the regional hub in Reunion. The rotation is now Singapore-Tanjung Pelepas-Pointe des Galets-Tamatave (by feeder)-Maputo-Beira-Nacala-Port Louis-Singapore. The changes were effective from 30th December 2018 at Singapore and Pointe des Galets on 10th January 2019 using the 26,374gt/2012 built Beethoven. The NOURA service, connecting the Middle East to East Africa, was revised from the 3rd January 2019 call of the 26,050gt/2001 built CMA CGM Manet at Jebel Ali by the addition of a 6th 2,200 TEU capacity sistership and a new rotation of Jebel Ali-Mombasa-Mogadishu- Longoni-Nacala (fortnightly)-Beira (fortnightly)-Port Victoria-Jebel Ali.

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