CARRIERS FORM VSA IN ASIA/AUSTRALIA TRADE
ANL Container Line, Evergreen and Hanjin Shipping are starting a new joint weekly Asia/Australia service in May.
The new service will be called the North Asia Australia Express (NAX) and will call at Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Busan, Keelung, Kaohsiung, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and back to Yokohama. The service will deploy five vessels averaging 2,200 TEUs. ANL, owned by CMA CGM, will contribute three vessels with Evergreen and Hanjin providing one each.
This development follows the termination next month of the Australia Asia Cooperation Agreement (AACA) in which ANL participated with China Shipping, “K” Line, MOL, NYK, OOCL, P&O Swire, Yang Ming Marine and Zim in the Australia to North and East Asia trades.
China Shipping, OOCL and Zim will all take space from ANL on the NAX service as part of a slot charter deal which will see ANL take space from those carriers in the Australia/East Asia trade.
Recently Evergreen and CMA CGM have entered into various slot charter arrangements in the Asia/Europe and transpacific markets.