Hamburg Sud, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine and APL have agreed to cooperate in the trade between Asia and Australia.
Initially, APL will purchase slots on the joint service of Hamburg Sud (marketed as AAUS), Hyundai (FAL) and Hapag-Lloyd (AAS), before all four carriers contribute vessels to a new two-string operation in May.
The addition of APL to the existing loop will "allow the AAUS partner lines to retain high system utilization in the slack season expected after Chinese New Year," Hamburg Sud said in a statement.
The current single service uses five vessels averaging about 2,500 TEUs on a rotation of Manila, Hong Kong, Yantian, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and back to Manila.
From May onwards the four lines will offer two fixed day weekly services using a total of nine 2,500 TEU ships:
Northern loop (five ships): Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Yokohama.
Southern loop (four ships): Kaoshiung, Yantian, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Kaoshiung.
Hamburg Sud will provide three of the vessels, while the other carriers will each contribute two ships.
"The two-loop approach allows the lines to offer exceptional port coverage in Asia and some of the fastest transit times northbound and southbound in the trade," Hamburg Sud said
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