MED/EAST COAST SOUTH AMERICA VSA LINES SPLIT
Costa Container Lines, Companhia Libra de Navega''o and Ybarra, a venture controlled by Hamburg Sud and CMA CGM, will leave their vessel-sharing agreement partner Italia di Navigazione in June to form a competing Mediterranean/East Coast of South America service.
The carriers currently operate a joint service called Seagull.
Costa, Libra and Ybarra will commence a consortium to be known as Sirius. No details have been confirmed for the new consortium. A spokesman from Italia said it is still considering its options.
The weekly Seagull service currently uses six vessels averaging about 1,600 TEUs.