Hamburg Sud is to revamp its European-America's liner network and in so doing will add more capacity to/from the northern Europe-west coast South America (WCSA) trading sector and build closer ties with its compatriot, Hapag-Lloyd.

    In a press announcement, Germany's second-largest liner shipping company said that it hoped to have its new set up fully in place in February 2012. It has notified the Washington (DC)-based Federal Maritime Commission to seek approval for the changes affecting its US operations.

    The restructuring plan will boost the carrier's two-string Eurosal operation which is run in conjunction with Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM. While the partners are not changing the service's loop 1 configuration, which is maintained with eight panamax ships of 3,750TEU-4,200TEU capacity - with the two German carriers contributing four ships - loop 2 is being completely overhauled.

    In particular, direct calls at smaller ports in the Caribbean basin, including Port of Spain and Willemstad are being stopped in favour of the use of regional transhipment hubs, such as Kingston, Jamaica, Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT - Panama) and Cartagena.

    Moreover, an extra 1,700TEU of weekly capacity is being added as 3,500TEU vessels will be phased into the link as replacements for 1,800TEU-class units currently deployed, although some of this increase will be offset by changes elsewhere. Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd will each contribute three vessels and CMA CGM two units.

    The new service will call weekly at Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Kingston, Cartagena, MIT, Guayaquil, Callao, Paita, Guayaquil, Buenaventura, MIT, Cartagena and return to Rotterdam.

    The WCSA trade has been registering generally good levels of growth, with the transfer of reefer cargoes, including bananas, to containers being a driver in the market. Recent months have seen both MSC and Maersk increase their capacity offerings, including the number of reefer plugs for perishable products.

    In other moves, Hamburg Sud intends suspending its dedicated Caribbean-Mediterranean link and truncating its current West Coast North America/Central America/Caribbean - Mediterranean service (WAMS), a joint operation  with CCNI, into a WCNA/Central America shuttle.

    The revamped operation will deploy 4 x 1,750TEU ships calling at Cartagena, Puerto Quetzal, Manzanillo, Long Beach, Oakland, Manzanillo, Lazaro Cardenas, Puerto Quetzal and return to Cartagena.

    Meanwhile, the transatlantic portion of WAMS will be integrated into Hapag-Lloyd's MCPS (Mediterranean - Central America/Pacific Coast) operation.

    This will result in the frequency of the latter link being improved from sailings every 11 days to weekly. In all 10 x 2,500TEU vessels will be deployed with Hamburg Sud providing two of them. The revamped schedule will include direct calls at Leghorn, Genoa, Fos, Barcelona, Valencia, Tanger Med, Cartagena, Manzanillo (Mexico), Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Vancouver (BC), Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles, Manzanillo (Mexico), MIT, Cartagena, Caucedo, Tanger Med, Valencia, Cagliari and return to Leghorn.
 

source:ci-online