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Two container shipping
giants, CMA CGM and Maersk, will join services
linking Asia and the US east and west coasts in
May.
Leading France-based CMA CGM has 387 ships on
more than 150 routes. It has 79 new vessels on
order for delivery between 2008 and 2011.
Maersk, a division of the A.P. Moller - Maersk
Group, has more than 470 container vessels with
a capacity of over 1,800,000 TEUs (20-foot
equivalent units).
The two companies will launch two joint shipping
strings, namely the Colombus route and the
Hudson loop.
The Colombus loop is a pendulum service with
rotation of port in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Yantian,
Singapore, Suez, New York, Norfolk, Tangier,
Suez, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yantian, Shanghai,
Pusan, Seattle, Vancouver, Yokohama and
Shanghai.
The Hudson loop port rotation includes Ningbo,
Shanghai, Qingdao, Pusan, Balboa, Panama,
Savannah, New York, Miami, Panama, Balboa and
Ningbo.
The new services are expected to improve the
companies’ services via extensive port coverage.
These two strings will be operated with ships of
6,500 TEUs capacity via Suez and 5,100 TEUs via
Panama.
According to a statement by CMA CGM group
vice-president North America Lines, Jean
Philippe Thenoz, this rationalisation of
services would replace its existing capacity,
allowing the company to strengthen port
coverage. |
