CSAV and Mediterranean Shipping Company have agreed to jointly operate four trade routes to focus on ocean carrier rationalization amid overcapacity, shrinking cargo volume and falling freight rates.
The pact covers trade lanes between north Europe and the west coast of South America; Asia and South Africa; the east coast of South America and the Middle East; and South Africa, Middle East and India.
“This agreement will expand our coverage in these markets, improving transit times and frequency, allowing us to provide a better service to our customers,” the Chile-based CSAV said in a statement. “This is a sign of CSAV’s positive view towards the future economic growth and development.”
The Euroandes service between north Europe and the west coast of South America will be upgraded to a weekly service deploying eight 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) ships. It starts with the first southbound sailing from Rotterdam on July 31. The port rotation: Rotterdam, Antwerp, Felixstowe, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Caucedo, Cartagena, Cristobal, Balboa, Callao, Puerto Angamos, Coronel, San Antonio, Balboa, Cristobal, Rotterdam.
The service will be complemented at Balboa and Cristobal with weekly feeders as follows: Central America-Cristobal, Peru and Colombia-Balboa, and Ecuador-Balboa.
The ASAX service between Asia and South Africa will deploy seven 4,000/6,700 TEU ships weekly with the following port rotation: Fuzhou, Xiamen, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Singapore, Port Louis, Durban, Ngura, Port Louis, Singapore, Fuzhou.
The weekly service between the east coast of South America and the Middle East will consist of two loops. The first, deploying eight 5,000/6,000 TEU ships, will operate the following rotation: Suape, Santos, Buenos Aires, Rio Grande, Navegantes, San Francisco do Sul, Sepetiba, Suape, Las Palmas, Valencia.
The second loop, deploying five 4,000/5,000 TEU ships, will operate the following rotation: Salvador, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Navegantes, Paranagua, Rio Grande, Santos, Las Palmas, Valencia.
The Marco Polo service between India, the Middle East and South Africa will deploy five 2,500/3,000 TEU vessels weekly with the following port rotation: Duban, Jebel Ali, Karachi, Mundra, Nava Sheva, Colombo, Durban.
The new agreement will take effect no later than the first week of August 2011 and be initially valid for three years, the CSAV said.
