COSCO upgrades capacity of Asia/West Coast service
Having deployed a new 8,000-TEU vessel into its transpacific West Coast “SEA” service, Shanghai-based COSCO Container Lines confirmed it will upgrade the whole service from 5,600-TEU to 8,000-TEU ships.
The “COSCO Long Beach,” described by independent industry sources as having a capacity of 7,500 TEUs, was scheduled join the “SEA” loop and sailed from the port of Ningbo today. COSCO said the ship is adding a call at Shanghai for its maiden voyage.
The Chinese state-owned carrier is due to take delivery of another four 7,500-TEU-type boxships by the end of the year.
The revised port rotation of the SEA loop is Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Yantian, Long Beach, Vancouver, Yokohama and Ningbo.
In a separate development, COSCO has added a one-off additional sailing from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Panama, New York, Norfolk and Charleston. This sailing will allow the carrier to transfer the 1,702-TEU “Fei Yun Hei” from the transpacific trade, where the ship traded as part of COSCO’s “China-Los Angeles Express” service to the transatlantic trade.
The CKYH alliance of COSCO, “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping decided in June to cut the capacity of their transatlantic services by introducing smaller vessels and transferring the bigger ships to the Pacific trade.