Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express (ONE) said they have entered into an agreement to share space on feeder ships in Europe and Asia.
They revealed their “Bilateral Strategic Feeder Network Cooperation Agreement” went into effect in August and will commence in the intra-Europe trade in the middle of October.
“The collaboration is leveraging the unique strengths and competitive advantages of both companies and aims to provide the market with a superior feeder network. Under this strategic cooperation, both companies will share space on their feeder services,” the companies said in press releases.
“If you want to serve Europe you have to feeder your boxes to
where the consumers are,” noted Dirk Visser, the senior shipping
consultant at Dynamar. Smaller ports in areas such as the Baltic Sea
cannot accommodate the large container vessels that are used on the main east-west trades, for example between Asia and Europe.
In Asia, Hapag-Lloyd and ONE are sharing space on:
• The Bohai Feeder (BHX) service, a new weekly service that began in August. Operated by ONE, slots also are taken by Hapag-Lloyd, HMM and OOC, according to BlueWater Reporting. It operates with a single 6,350-TEU ship, according to BlueWater Reporting, in a weekly service with a Busan-Xingang-Busan rotation.
• The Hokkai Arirang Service (HAS) service that, according to ONE’s online schedule, uses a single ship in a weekly service with a Busan-Tomakomai-Busan rotation.
• The Philippines Indonesia Service (PID), a weekly service that, according to ONE’s online schedule, uses three ships in the following rotation: Singapore-Port Kelang-Subic Bay-Manila-Singapore-Surabaya- Singapore. The rotation takes 21 days.
In Europe, they will start sharing space on these services in October:
• Hapag-Lloyd’s Baltic Sea Express Service (BAX), which currently uses two 2,800-TEU ships, according to BlueWater Reporting, operating in the following rotation: Hamburg-Bremerhaven-Gdynia-Klaipeda-Riga-Tallinn- Rauma-Hamburg.
• Hapag-Lloyd’s North Sea Baltic Express (NBS), which currently uses two 4,775-TEU ships, according to BlueWater Reporting, operating in the following rotation: Antwerp-Rotterdam-Gdynia-St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Gdynia-Antwerp.
• Hapag-Lloyd’s Russia Express Service (REX), which currently uses two 2,861-TEU, ships according to BlueWater Reporting, operating in the following rotation: Hamburg-Bremerhaven-Gdynia-St. Petersburg-Kotka- Helsinki-Gdynia-Hamburg.
• Hapag-Lloyd’s Sweden Denmark Express (SDX), which currently uses a single 1,085-TEU ship, according to BlueWater Reporting, operating in the following rotation: Bremerhaven-Hamburg-Copenhagen-Helsingborg- Gothenburg-Aarhus-Bremerhaven.
• Hapag-Lloyd’s Adria Express (ADX), which operates in the following rotation: Damietta-Ancona-Koper-Rijeka-Venice-Piraeus-Damietta.
• Hapag-Lloyd’s Levante Express (LEX), which operates in the following rotation: Alexandria-Damietta-Beirut-Iskenderun-Mersin-Aliaga-Piraeus-Genoa-Livorno-Civitavecchi-Salerno-Cagliari-Alexandria.
The two carriers will further introduce a new intra-Europe service, the North Sea Poland Express (NPX), in mid-October.
They also said, “The collaboration will be further expanded into other key areas in due course.”
Rolf Habben Jansen, chief executive officer of Hapag-Lloyd, said, “This new cooperation strengthens Hapag-Lloyd’s and Ocean Network Express’ footprints in Europe as well as expands both companies’ service portfolios in Asia. With this new cooperation we are able to offer our customers worldwide a far better and consistent feeder network.”
Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express also operate together within THE Alliance and cooperate on their Latin America, Africa and Indian subcontinent trades. Japan’s three large shipping companies joined their container liner businesses to form ONE, which began operations earlier this year.
However, the other member of THE Alliance, Yang Ming, was not mentioned as participating in the new feeder agreement.