CMA CGM TO TAKE SPACE ON MAERSK SEALAND IN PACIFIC

CMA CGM TO TAKE SPACE ON MAERSK SEALAND IN PACIFIC

   CMA CGM will take space on Maersk Sealand’s Asia/U.S. West Coast/U.S. East Coast TP2 service from the end of October until the beginning of next year’s transpacific peak season.

   The slot-charter deal with Maersk Sealand will replace CMA CGM’s current agreement on Norasia’s China California Service, which ends in late October.

   The French carrier is taking slots from Maersk Sealand eastbound from Shanghai and Pusan to Long Beach and westbound from Long Beach to Hong Kong.

   For CMA CGM, the first sailing on this service will be on Oct. 25 out of Shanghai.

   “This is a short-term agreement with Maersk,” said Rodolphe Saade, general manager of CMA CGM in charge of the transpacific trade. The TP2 service of Maersk Sealand “will open up a new market from Pusan, Korea, to the U.S. West Coast that we do not service at present.”

   The TP2 transpacific service has a transit time of 14 days from Shanghai to Long Beach.

   CMA CGM plans to introduce additional vessels in the transpacific by May. Its slot-charter agreement with Maersk Sealand will expire on May 1.

   A spokesman for Maersk Sealand said that the agreement to sell space to CMA CGM is designed to stabilize the trade during the forthcoming transpacific slack season.

   Once it joins the TP2 service, CMA CGM will have three weekly Asia/U.S. services, including an all-water Asia/U.S. East Coast service started in April. Maersk Sealand provides six Asia/U.S. sailings a week, including one via the Suez Canal.

   Details of all available transpacific liner services are posted on the global shipping database ComPairData at http://www.compairdata.com.