Evergreen and COSCO convert large ships from the Northern European route to Mediterranean

Shipping lines Evergreen Marine Corporation and COSCO Shipping Lines will replace 13,000 TEU vessels with 20,000 TEU vessels on the Far East - Mediterranean service they jointly operate.

The 20,000 TEU vessels will be transferred from the companies' Far East - North Europe service, and will then be replaced by 13,000 TEU vessels.

Alphaliner's latest report states that the tonnage swap between routes is due to the realignment of all Far East - Europe services of OCEAN Alliance through the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the threat of attack from Houthis in the Red Sea.

One of these services, marketed by Evergreen as CES and NEU7 by other alliance members, used to call at the port of Piraeus as the first unloading port in Europe en route to Antwerp, Hamburg and Rotterdam.

To improve frequency amid the Red Sea crisis, the service bypassed Piraeus and rotated for 14 weeks, calling at Tianjin, Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, Singapore, Colombo, Antwerp, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Tanjung Pelepas, and Tianjin.

Due to a lack of suitable vessels, OCEAN Alliance has withdrawn the third Far East - North Europe service jointly operated by COSCO (AEU7) and OOCL (LL3), which also had stops in Piraeus in the west direction. This requires an alternative for Asian exports to Greece.
OCEAN Alliance has found a solution by upgrading the aforementioned Far East - Mediterranean service, marketed as AEM1 by COSCO and MD2 by Evergreen, to operate with 20,000 TEU vessels. The service has been revised to a 14-week rotation (three weeks extra) with Piraeus as the first port in Europe, before ships call at other Mediterranean ports in Italy, France and Spain. The full itinerary is Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Piraeus, La Spezia, Genoa, Fos, Valencia, Singapore and Qingdao.
However, Alphaliner warns that it will be difficult for CES/NEU7 to maintain its weekly schedule without the 20,000 TEU vessel.

The 14,424 TEU Theseus entered service at the end of February, followed by the 13,808 TEU Thalassa Mana on May 17 and Thalassa Doxa on June 19, but this still leaves many gaps in the upcoming schedule .

Source: Phaata.com (via ContainerNews) 

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