OOCL, ANL, COSCON Launch New Asia-Australia Services

A new Asia Australia Consortium (A3) has been established in an effort to provide “more competitive service” and comprehensive coverage in the North East Asia/Australia container shipping market.

The consortium consists of the Hong Kong-based container shipping company Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), Australian ANL Container Line Pty Limited and China’s COSCO Container Lines (COSCON).

The A3 will launch three dedicated weekly services, namely the Northern Express, Central Express and Southern Express, connecting ten major North East Asia ports with Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia.

The Northern Express service will have the following port rotation: Yokohama – Osaka – Busan – Qingdao – Shanghai – Kaohsiung – Melbourne – Sydney – Brisbane – Yokohama.

The Central Express service will include the port rotation: Shanghai – Ningbo – Sydney – Melbourne – Brisbane – Shanghai, and the Southern Express service will stop in: Kaohsiung – Xiamen – Shekou – Hong Kong – Sydney – Melbourne – Brisbane – Kaohsiung.

Subject to regulatory approval, the A3 plans to launch the new services starting from September or October.