The container carriers of the G6 alliance – APL, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai, MOL, NYK, and OOCL – have become the second liner consortium to offer a direct service from the Far East to the Baltic Sea.
The group announced today that its Far East-Europe loop 7, operated with Ultra-large ships of more than 13,000 teu, is being extended by a call at the port of Gdansk. The first sailing from the Far East with the new rotation will be on 29 June from Qingdao, with the first call at Gdansk on 10 August, the G6 carriers said.
Only the 2M alliance between MSC and Maersk has offered a direct Far East/Baltic Sea connection with Gdansk as discharge port through Maersk’s AE10 service.
Local terminal operator DCT Gdansk recently broke ground with the construction of a second deepwater berth for large container vessels, with inauguration planned for the third quarter of 2016.
For the G6, adding another port to its loop 7 should help keep its string of vessels for the service busy at a time of slack demand on the Asia-Europe route. According to French shipping analyst Alphaliner, the G6 loop 7 has had 15% of all sailings blanked since January due to lack of cargo.
As well, the G6 announced the inclusion of Port Said as a way port on its Asia-Europe loop 4.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
