PON rejigs Asia service

SA benefits from different style of fleet deployment
ALAN PEAT
WITH BOOMING trade on the Asia-East Coast South America (ECSA) trade – where China-Brazil is the driving force - P&O Nedlloyd is to increase its capacity by half as much again on the ECSA-SA-Asia service.
And SA gets its benefits from the different style of fleet deployment – designed to replace the existing joint-service with MOL in August with a P&O solo service.
“Although the new service is pitched more towards the mainhaul Asia-ECSA-Asia legs,” said Iain McIntosh, P&O’s marketing manager, “the new event for us, of course, is a Durban westbound call.”
Added to this are the 600 reefer plugs on each of the new ships, and a much strengthened
reefer product.
“This was already strong,” McIntosh told FTW, “with fast transits from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth to Asia – but it was being put under pressure with old configuration.
“Our new service will therefore allow growth of this market.”
The ASAS Standalone Service will deploy 11 ships with nominal capacity of 2500 TEUs – and will run the following port rotation: Pusan-Shanghai-Keelung-Hong Kong-Singapore-Durban-Port Elizabeth-Santos-Buenos Aires-Montevideo-Rio Grande-Paranagua-Sao Francisco do Sul-Santos-Rio de Janeiro-Cape Town-Port Elizabeth-Singapore-Hong Kong-Pusan.
Japan will be covered by a feeder product via Pusan
According to Lloyds List, P&O Nedlloyd is not alone in adding capacity on its Asia service – while also raising the point that this may see softening rates as rivals battle for market share.
Quoting an MOL director on Brazil, the report pointed to MOL also looking to add new vessels to its fleet. It added that CSAV and NYK Line had both upgraded their services on the trade in recent months and MSC, Hanjin Shipping and China Shipping were understood to be interested in establishing new services to the region.