Asia Carriers Boost Asia-North Europe Capacity

The CKYH Green Alliance of four Asian ocean container carriers is boosting capacity on Asia-North Europe routes with the addition of a new service.

China's Cosco, Japan's "K" Line, Hanjin Shipping of South Korea and Taiwan's Yang Ming will introduce a sixth loop, called NE6, from mid-April to increase sailing frequencies between major Asian ports and Europe.

With the new loop announced Wednesday, the CKYH lines also will restructure existing services by combining some port calls.

By The Numbers: 2009-2010 Asia-Europe Westbound Container Traffic

The new NE6 service rotation is: Kwangyang-Pusan-Ningbo-Shanghai-Xiamen-Hong Kong-Yantian-Felixstowe-Hamburg-Rotterdam-Singapore-Kwangyang.

Following the launch of the NE6 loop, the port coverage of the NE5 loop will be adjusted to the following rotation: Shanghai-Ningbo-Kaohsiung-Yantian-Singapore-Ho Chi Minh-Singapore- Algeciras-Hamburg-Rotterdam-Le Havre-Algeciras-Singapore-Shanghai.

"With this reshuffling, the CKYH Green Alliance will be able to provide customers with more frequent services and reduced carbon emissions through optimum navigation speed," the carriers said.

The added service comes as rates on shipping out of Asia to Europe have been slipping amid general soft pricing for container shipping. The Shanghai Shipping Exchange's SCFI, Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, shows Asia-to-Europe rates have fallen about 14 percent since the end of 2010.

-- Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.