United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), the French liner CMA CGM and Germany’s Hamburg Süd have agreed to form a new service on the Transatlantic North trade routes, linking Northern Europe with the United States East Coast.
The new service, starting in the third week of May, will call at the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Le Havre, Southampton, New York, Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah and vice-versa, offering a weekly capacity allocation of around 3,300 TEU.
Jørn Hinge, President and CEO at UASC, said: ”We are excited about the opportunities that this new Transatlantic service will create for UASC customers. By partnering with two of our key partners CMA CGM and Hamburg Süd, with whom UASC has important long-term agreements on other trades, we are confident that we will deliver fast transit times, high standards of reliability and service excellence on this route.”
In September 2014, UASC announced the Ocean 3 alliance with CMA CGM and China Shipping Container Lines, for which services commenced in January. UASC has also entered into a general cooperation agreement with Hamburg Süd to secure entry to the South American trades for the first time, with services due to start in mid-April.
UASC is also engaged in a major newbuilding program for 17 new ships; eleven 15,000 TEU vessels and six 18,800 TEU vessels.
The first three 15,000 TEU vessels have been delivered to the UASC fleet, achieving the distinction of being the world’s first LNG-ready ultra-large container vessels. In total, 11 vessels from UASC’s newbuild program will be delivered by the end of 2015.