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The
Grand Alliance will remove a further
8 per cent capacity in the
Europe-Asia trades this year
following a decision to lay-up four
ships until demand recovers.
A
seventh weekly Europe-Asia service
that the alliance had planned to
start in 2002 has also been
postponed indefinitely, the
consortium confirmed yesterday.
The
net result will be a capacity
reduction of more than 15 per cent
this year compared with the volume
of cargo space the Grand Alliance
was planning to run between Europe
and Asia before trade conditions
worsened.
The
alliance, whose members are P&O
Nedlloyd, NYK Line, Hapag-Lloyd,
Orient Overseas Container Line and
Malaysia International Shipping
Corp, is the largest service
provider in the Europe-Asia
trades.
Annual
capacity next year will be around
1.6 million TEUs.
The
Grand Alliance accounts for about 36
per cent of Far Eastern Freight
Conference capacity which in turn
represents some 60 per cent of the
total Europe-Asia trade.
Two
ships to be laid-up will be selected
from Loop B, which serves Le Havre,
Southampton, Bremerhaven, Antwerp,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung,
Pusan, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong,
Singapore and Port Klang.
Vessels
in this loop range between 4,469
TEUs and 5,344 TEUs, and are
operated by Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL and
MISC.
The
other two will come from Loop 3 that
calls at Rotterdam, Hamburg,
Southampton, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Qingdao, Pusan, Kaohsiung, Hong
Kong, Shekou and Port Klang.
Eight
ships of between 5,642 TEUs and
5,714 TEUs, operated by OOCL and
P&O Nedlloyd, are utilised.
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