M2 ADDS SERVICE FOR ASIA-USEC

NEWS FLASH: 2M Alliance to launch new Asia-USEC service

The 2M Alliance, comprised of ocean carriers Maersk Line and MSC, will also add a call in New York to another one of its loops between Asia and the U.S. East Coast.

By Chris Dupin |Thursday, March 31, 2016

   The 2M Alliance, comprised of ocean carriers Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), will launch a new service between Asia and the United States Gulf and East Coast, according to a statement from MSC.
   The new loop, which MSC calls the "Lone Star Express," will commence operations May 2 from Qingdao with an as-yet-unnamed ship. The loop will have a rotation of Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Xiamen, Yantian, Busan, Cristobal, Houston, Mobile, Miami, Balboa, Busan and Qingdao.
   At the same time, MSC’s Everglades service between the Far East and the East Coast of North America, which also transits the Panama Canal, will be renamed the "Amberjack" and restructured to include a call to New York. This service, which is also consider a 2M Alliance service, currently has an average vessel capacity of 4,409 TEUs, according to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting.
   The Amberjack loop will have a rotation of Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Busan, Savannah, New York, Charleston, Jacksonville, Freeport and Tianjin. The first sailing of the newly launched Amberjack will be with the May 6 sailing of the Grasmere Maersk from Tianjin.
   The Grasmere Maersk has a capacity of 4,658 TEUs, according to BlueWater Reporting. It is not clear whether the companies plan to increase the size of ships when the Panama Canal opens its expanded locks.
   However, U.S. East Coast and Gulf ports in general are expected to get a boost in traffic when the new locks open in the Panama Canal later this summer.
   MSC noted the 2M Alliance also has two trans-Suez services, which MSC calls America and Empire. These loops serve trade between the Far East and the U.S. East Coast, and both already call New York. The America has an average vessel capacity of 8,369 TEUs, while the Empire has an average vessel capacity of 8,635 TEUs, according to BlueWater Reporting.