THE Alliance Announces Product Plans
The container shipping companies that make up THE Alliance have announced details of their proposed product starting from April 2017.
THE Alliance plans to deploy a fleet of more than 240 modern ships in the Asia/Europe, North Atlantic and Trans-Pacific trade lanes including the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf/Red Sea.
“The product of THE Alliance is a milestone which will significantly improve the service offering for all shippers on the East West trade lanes,” said the member carriers Hapag-Lloyd, K Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Yang Ming.
The product will be characterized by fast transit times, a broad port coverage and deployment of modern and most efficient ships.
The network of 31 services would connect more than 75 major ports throughout Asia, North Europe, the Mediterranean, North America, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East with fast transit times and a wide range of direct port-port-connections.
The product of THE Alliance will feature eight services in the Asia/Europe trade including three services covering the important Mediterranean market. One dedicated service will cater for customers in the Middle East, connecting the key ports of China, South Korea and South East Asia with Dammam, Jubail and an Arabian Gulf hub port. 16 joint services will be operated by THE Alliance members on the Trans Pacific trade. Six loops will serve the North Atlantic trade covering a wide range of North European and Mediterranean ports as well as those in the US, Canada and Mexico.
The service network of THE Alliance is expected to cover more than 24 ports in Asia including ten Chinese and five Japanese ports with direct calls as well as 20 ports in the U.S. and Canada, six North European and 13 Mediterranean ports, six ports in the Middle East and six ports in Central America/Caribbean.
The announcement comes days after members of the new Ocean Alliance, CMA CGM, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen Line and Orient Overseas Container Line, announced their proposed “day one” trading network. The Alliance is the largest shipping alliance in the world, and the partners will operate 40 services on the East-West trades with around 100 ports of call and almost 500 port pairs.