Tokyo: German owner Hamburg Süd says that, "in view of the deteriorating market situation", it, Hapag-Lloyd as slot charterer, COSCON and ICS (MOL and NYK with Maersk Line as slot charterer) have decided to cut capacities on the service between North East Asia, Brisbane and New Zealand with immediate effect., writes MGN.com.
Hamburg Süd's Asia - Australia/New Zealand Service (ANZL) and the COSCON/ICS consortium's service will be combined to create a weekly fixed day service providing expanded port coverage in Asia and New Zealand.
The new service has the following port rotation: Auckland - New Plymouth - Nelson (fortnightly) - Wellington (fortnightly) - Lyttelton - Napier - Tauranga - Tokyo - Kobe - Busan - Shanghai - Yantian - Hong Kong - Brisbane - Auckland. Service to and from Brisbane will be offered exclusively by Hamburg Süd.
The new service will see the deployment of six modern 3,000 to 3,500 TEU vessels. Of these, Hamburg Süd and COSCON will each provide two, while MOL and NYK will be contributing one each. To take account of customer demand for more reefer capacity - especially from New Zealand to North East Asia - all six vessels feature 500 reefer plugs.
"Additionally," a statement says, "the partners of the new consortium have committed to a peak-season extra-loader programme which will ensure that all refrigerated trade volumes will be adequately accommodated. This extra loader programme will complement the regular weekly product and provide a service between New Zealand and the important North East Asian reefer markets."
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