SOUTH Korea's Hanjin Shipping is to take delivery of the first of nine 13,092 TEU, the Hanjin Sooho, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), which will phase into CKHY Alliance NE6 service with a maiden voyage on April 1.

The second and third vessels, Hanjin Asia and Hanjin Europe will be delivered on the April 15 and May 6 respectively. All three vessels will replace vessels averaging 9,000 TEU with a further shift of other vessels from CKHY Asia/Europe structure into the NE6.

By mid-March, the existing average weekly capacity of the NE6 service willhave increased from 9,300 TEU to 11,050 TEU, an increase of just over 18 per cent.

The port rotation from April 1 will be: Tianjin, Kwangyang, Busan, Shanghai, Singapore, Algeciras, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Algeciras, Singapore, Hong Kong and back to Tianjin.

The NE6 service will serve both east and westbound directions for transhipment at Algeciras with the Felixstowe call to be moved to the CUS service and westbound port calls to Ningbo, Xiamen and Hong Kong removed altogether.

Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News