Ocean Carriers Reducing Capacity

Five Ocean Carriers are joining together in a Vessel Sharing Agreement which will reduce the capacity between Asia and Australia.

As reported in the Journal of Commerce

"(This) cooperation will result in a net capacity reduction equivalent to 800 TEUs per week, or 3.2 percent of total trade capacity. Significant cost increases and poor freight rates both south- and northbound have made this step necessary."

Click here for complete article.

Evergreen will be joining the already existing VSA as report in the Hamburg-Sued press release.

"Hamburg, 1 October 2008. APL, Hamburg Süd, Hapag-Lloyd and Hyundai
Merchant Marine have decided to team up with Evergreen in the trade
between North East Asia and Australia. With this cooperation the four
AAS partners (Asia Australia Services) together with Evergreen will
jointly provide one of the most comprehensive service networks in the
trade with two fixed-day weekly service loops with the following
ports of call:

Northern Loop: Yokohama - Osaka - Pusan - Qingdao - Shanghai - Ningbo
- Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane - Yokohama
Southern Loop: Kaohsiung - Yantian - Hong Kong - Melbourne - Sydney -
Brisbane - Kaohsiung"

Expect to see more of this type of rationalization in all trades as business slows.