Taipei: Doom and gloom on the transpacific is making for unlikely alliances. After Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM came together recently, it appears Taiwan's Evergreen will hook up with the new World Alliance comprising MOL, APL and HMM to rationalize North America West Coast services.
Four ships of around 3,000 TEUs in capacity are likely to be deployed a joint weekly service linking five ports in Japan and Los Angeles. The creation of a "Japan-dedicated service" would not only cut the transit times to LA from each of the five Japanese ports but also help enhance the competitive edge of their existing transpacific services which cover Chinese as well as Japanese ports.
No details of the planned tie-up have been divulged. However, it appears that three ships are likely to be assigned by MOL and another by Evergreen, with both APL and HMM taking part in the form of slot chartering. The five ports to be covered in Japan will be Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya, Shimizu and Tokyo. Los Angeles will be the sole U.S. port to be covered. [01/04/08]
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