GERMANY's Hamburg Sud will reconfigure its Northern Route (EMNR) the Europe-East Mediterranean/Israel services (UKEI) as well as its Southern Route (EMSR) Service into two new stand-alone loops called the North Europe-South Mediterranean Service (NESM) and the North Europe-North Mediterranean Service (NENM) starting late September.

The 2,500- to 2,700-TEU five-ship NESM service rotation will be Felixstowe, Antwerp, Hamburg, Tangiers, Alexandria, Limassol, Ashdod, Mersin, Haifa, Alexandria and back to Felixstowe.

The 1,700- to 2,100-TEU five-ship NENM service rotation will be Felixstowe, Hamburg, Antwerp, Tangiers, Beirut, Lattakia, Kumport, Gebze, Izmir, Salerno and back to Felixstowe.

The new service configuration provides for comprehensive port coverage and fast transit times from and to North Europe, said the Hamburg Sud statement. Through the calls in the hub port of Tangiers, eastern Med locations will be connected to the worldwide service network of Hamburg Sud. Tunis will then be connected through a dedicated feeder via Tangiers.

"Parallel to the aforementioned improvements, the shipping group's port rotation on the Italy - Syria/Lebanon/Egypt Service (EMDS) is also being adjusted. Here the new rotation is Salerno, Vado Ligure, Livorno, Alexandria, Beirut, Lattakia, Tartous (monthly) and back to Salerno," said the company release.

The first sailings on the new NESM Service are scheduled for September 26 (southbound) with the Cap Bizerta and on October 3 (northbound) with the Cap Palmas.

The first sailings on the new NENM Service are scheduled for September 22 (southbound) with the Santa Francesca and October 8 (northbound), also with the Santa Francesca.

Source: shipping online