Hamburg Sud Restructures Europe-US VSAs

Hamburg Sud will restructure many of the joint vessel-sharing agreements it operates with other carriers on the trade lanes from North Europe and the Mediterranean to Central America and the west coasts of North and South America in February.

The German container shipping lines said the new configuration will provide connections to its worldwide network and deliver significant cost reductions without any increase in capacity in the market.

Hamburg Sud will upgrade the vessels on its current EUROSAL loop 2 with eight ships with capacities of 3,500 20-foot equivalent units, replacing the current eight 1,800-TEU ships. Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd will continue to provide three vessels each and CMA CGM will deploy two.

The port rotation of the Eurosal loop 2 will be as follows: Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Kingston, Cartagena, Manzanillo (Panama), Guayaquil, Callao, Paita, Guayaquil, Buenaventura, Manzanillo (Panama), Cartagena and back to Rotterdam.

Eurosal loop 1, which connects North Europe with Central America and the west coast of South America, will remain unchanged and be operated by eight Panamax vessels, with Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd providing four vessels each.

The port rotation remains as follows: Rotterdam, Hamburg, Tilbury, Antwerp, Caucedo, Cartagena, Manzanillo (Panama), Callao, Valparaiso, Callao, Manzanillo (Panama), Cartagena, Caucedo and back to Rotterdam.

Hamburg Sud will join Hapag-Lloyd in the MCPS service between the Mediterranean and the West Coast of North America by providing two out of 10 vessels with capacities of 2,500 TEUs.
The two carriers will revised the service from an 11-day to a weekly frequency.

By joining in the MCPS service, Hamburg Sud is extending its portfolio and replacing the current service between the Caribbean and the Mediterranean (CAMS).

The port rotation of the MCPS service will be as follows: Cartagena, Manzanillo (Mexico), Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles– Manzanillo (Mexico) , Manzanillo (Panama), Cartagena, Caucedo, Tangier, Valencia, Cagliari, Livorno, Genoa, Marseilles-Fos, Barcelona, Valencia, Tangier and back to Cartagena.

From now on the current Hamburg Sud West Coast service (WAMS) will concentrate on the North America West Coast – Caribbean range efficiently linking up with the many Hamburg Sud services to the Caribbean, East and West Coast South America, North Europe, Mediterranean and U.S. Gulf.