MSC has introduced a new Red Sea Express service that connects Tekirdag, Derince, Mersin, King Abdullah Port, Jeddah, Aqaba, Tekirdag from 31 December 2023 with the 4,872 teu MSC CARMEN. The service will provide connections to the Red Sea ports in Saudi Arabia and Jordan that are currently restricted.
MSC has upgraded its FE-US West Coast Jaguar service to the 19,000 teu scale with ships that have been redeployed from the Asia-Europe routes due to their Israeli links. The Jaguar service calls at Nansha, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Long Beach, Busan, Nansha and used ships of 13,000 to 19,000 teu previously. Since the Hamas-Israel conflict started in October and attacks on vessel traffic on the Red Sea has escalated in recent weeks, MSC has shifted 6 ships of 16,500-19,500 teu owned by Zodiac
Ellerman will purchase 300 teu per week on MSC's Scan Baltic to USA service on a roundtrip basis starting from 6 January 2024. The service calls at Klaipeda, Gdynia, Gothenburg, Bremerhaven, Felixstowe, Antwerp, Le Havre, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Klaipeda. Ellerman will have a maximum allocation of 120 teu per week from Scandinavian ports to USA. The slot arrangement on MSC will replace Ellerman's USA Express (USX) service that calls at Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Tilbury
MSC has launched a new Torogoz Feeder service connecting Balboa, Acajutla, Puerto Quetzal, Balboa using the 1,878 teu MSC DIAMOND II. The service has been in operation since July 2023, and operates on a 2-3 week rotation on an irregular frequency.
MSC will revise the port rotation of the Far East-US East Coast Santana service from 2 December 2023 to call at Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Qingdao, Busan, Manzanillo, Cristobal, Caucedo, New York, Yantian. The revised service will turn in 11 weeks on a 77 day rotation and will deploy up to 11 neo-panamax ships of 13,000-15,000 teu. The new rotation will omit previous calls at Laem Chabang, Cai Mep and Norfolk while adding a new call at Yantian.
Hapag-Lloyd will receive next month the first of 9 ships of 14,372 teu that it has chartered from SFL and Enesel for 5 year periods in the first benchmark fixture for ships of this size following the expiry of their initial 10 year charter to Evergreen. The first 2 ships (THALASSA HELLAS and THALASSA PATRIS) are currently undergoing upgrades at COSCO Zhoushan including raised lashing bridges that will increase their nominal capacity from 13,808 teu to 14,372 teu. They will join the FE-US East
MSC has extended its lead at the top of the carrier rankings, with its current fleet reaching 5.36m teu, up from 4.61m teu at the beginning of January. Newbuilding deliveries contributed 557,000 teu to the increase, with the rest coming from second hand vessel acquisitions and new charters. MSC has grown at an average rate of 83,000 teu a month, with its lead over 2nd place Maersk rising to 1.24m teu. Maersk has seen its operated fleet shrink from 4.21m teu at the beginning of the year to 4.12
Zim has withdrawn its Zim Med ISC (ZMI) service from September 2023, with the last sailing departing from Haifa on 2 September 2023. The ZMI service called at Haifa, Aliaga, Valencia, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Ashdod, Limassol,Haifa,Colombo,Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Haifa turning in 5 weeks with 5 ships of 3,500-6,800 teu operated independently by Zim. Zim will replace the ZMI with slots on 3 MSC services covering 3 separate corridors that were previously served by the ZMI:
MSC and Zim have announced on 6 September 2023 a new operational cooperation agreement covering the trades between the Indian subcontinent with the East Mediterranean, the East Mediterranean with Northern Europe, and services connecting East Asia with Oceania. The cooperation is expected to be expanded when the current 2M-Zim collaboration is dissolved from January 2025, with MSC poised to further extend its current slot sale agreement with Zim on the Asia-PNW route to cover the Asia-US East Coa
MSC has added a Mex Gulf to Central America service through slots on Zim's Central America Gulf Xpress (CGX) that calls at Kingston, Houston, Altamira, Kingston, Moin, Santo Tomas de Castilla, Puerto Cortes, Kingston using 3 ships of 900-1,100 teu. The move follows the announcement of Zim's new operational collaboration agreement with MSC on trades connecting the Indian subcontinent with the East Mediterranean, the East Mediterranean with Northern Europe, and services connecting East Asia with