Zim has withdrawn its Zim Med ISC (ZMI) service from September 2023, with the last sailing departing from Haifa on 2 September 2023.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
Zim will join MSC on the North Europe-Israel trade by contributing two out of the 5 ships on the revised Zim North Europe Israel (ZNI)/Israel Express service from the end of August 2023. The service will call at Ashdod, Haifa, Damietta, Valencia, London Gateway, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Ashdod with the 7,403 teu KURE, 6,724 teu MSC LORETTA from MSC 5,550 teu MSC VIGO that will be joined by the 6,881 teu ZIM ALABAMA and 6,644 teu ZIM VIETNAM. This is the 3rd trade in which Zim and
MSC and Zim will jointly operate the enhanced Panda/Zim Northeast Asia-Australia (ZAX) service from 18 October 2023 following the withdrawal of Zim's own China-Australia Express (CAX) service. The Panda/ZAX will call at Nansha, Hong Kong, Yantian, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Hong Kong, Yantian, Nansha using 7 ships of 5,000 teu of which 4 will be operated by MSC and 3 will be from Zim. Revised rotation of the new Panda/ZAX service from Octob
Zim recorded its worst quarterly loss since its financial restructuring in 2014, with the 2Q 2023 net loss reaching $213m. ZIM’s EBIT loss expanded in 2Q by 11 times QoQ. Zim’s 2Q EBIT margin of -11.2% places it at the bottom of the earnings league table comprising of 10 of the top 12 carriers, with Zim the worst of the 3 carriers that dropped into loss making territory along with Wan Hai (net loss of $76m) and Yang Ming (net loss of $4m). Low operating efficiency and high charter expenses have
Zim will withdraw its ships from the Asia-Oceania trade and replace them with slots on MSC's enhanced Oceania services suite from October 2023. The move will affect 14 ships of 1,100 teu to 2,800 teu that Zim currently employs on 3 services on this route. Zim's existing China-Australia Express (CAX) service will be replaced by slots on MSC's Panda service that calls at Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Yantian, Nansha, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Busan. Zim's current Thai
Charter rates for ships below 5,000 teu have tumbled with an increasing pool of redelivered ships and relets while charter periods have also shortened with carriers unwilling to commit to longer periods in a slowing market. Rates for ships above 5,000 teu have remained relatively resilient but this is only due to the limited number of candidates available in the market. Zim continues to shed its surplus tonnage, with the 4,252 teu VOLANS redelivered 10 months early and retaken by Hapag-Lloyd at
Zim has withdrawn the Zim North Pacific (ZNP) service with the last sailing from Busan on 12 July 2023. The ZNP deployed up to 7-9 ships of 2,700-4,300 teu and called at Kaohsiung, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Busan, Vancouver (BC), Busan, Kaohsiung. The removal of the ZNP will remove 1% from the FE-USWC capacity. Zim will replace the ZNP with slots on MSC’s Chinook service with the first Zim sailing on the 6,400 teu MSC DAMLA at Yantian from 15 July. The full Chinook rotation will be Yantian,
Container liftings for main carriers fell 6.8% YoY in 1Q 2023, accelerating from the 6.6% YoY fall in 4Q. All 9 of the main carriers recorded volume reductions, with Zim and Maersk recording the largest drops. The aggregate liftings of the 9 carriers in 1Q 2023 were even lower than the 2Q 2020 level during the first COVID wave. Despite the of the continuous improvement of the vessel turnaround time on the easing of port congestion, liner’s volume yield (liftings per slot) has continued to fall