In response to the upgrade of the Panama Canal and seasonal changes in market demand, members of the G6 Alliance are making product and service updates for the Asia – North America trade effective this summer.

Regarding the Asia – North America East Coast services, the alliance, consisting of APL, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Orient Overseas Container Line, said that it will add a new service NYX, effective from Week 23.

The new service would focus on coverage between Central and North China/Korea to the United States East Coast with the following port rotation: Qingdao – Ningbo – Shanghai (Yangshan) – Busan – Panama Canal – Manzanillo (Panama) – New York – Norfolk – Savannah – Manzanillo (Panama) – Panama Canal – Busan – Qingdao.

Furthermore, the alliance enhanced its network linking Asia to the United States and Europe with a new PA1 port rotation and added an additional call to Shanghai in its PA2 port rotation, focusing on coverage between Asia – Mid and South Atlantic connections.

The alliance said that its CEC coverage will be widened to include port calls at Kaohsiung, while the port rotations of AZX and SVS will remain unchanged.

“As a result of the above enhancements, the current NYE/SCE Combo and NCE services will be suspended,” the G6 alliance said.

The final sailing in the NYE/SCE Combo service will be the Hyundai Dynasty 046E/W with an ETA to Xiamen on June 2, 2016, ETA Savannah July 4, 2016, while the NCE service’s last sailing will be the Hyundai Integral 051E/W with an ETA to Busan on May 29, 2016, ETA New York July 2, 2016.

Regarding the Asia – North America West Coast Services, the alliance said that it will resume the CC2 service in week 21, and that the CC4 service will resume its original port rotation as a shuttle service between Central China and the United States West Coast.

At the end of March, the alliance added more void sailings to its Asia-Europe service’ Loop 6 in response to the changes in market demand.

The void sailings, which are scheduled to take effect from week 19, would continue for an additional period of eight weeks.

Source: World Maritime news.com