Hamburg Süd, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine and APL are expanding their cooperation in the trade between Asia and Australia (AAUS) and are enhancing the existing AAUS service with the most comprehensive service network in the trade.
As from May onwards the lines will provide two fixed-day weekly service loops with the following ports of call:
Northern loop: Yokohama – Osaka – Busan – Qingdao – Shanghai – Ningbo – Melbourne – Sydney – Brisbane – Yokohama
Southern loop: Kaoshiung – Yantian – Hong Kong – Melbourne – Sydney – Brisbane – Kaoshiung
The services will be operated with nine modern 2,500 TEU vessels (five in the northern loop and four in the southern loop) of which Hamburg Süd will provide three and Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine and APL two vessels each.
The two-loop approach allows the lines to offer exceptional port coverage in Asia and some of the fastest transit times northbound and southbound in the trade.
In conjunction with the above two-loop AAUS service, Hamburg Süd will continue to operate the Asia – Australia/New Zealand service (ANZL) which covers Yokohama – Kobe – Shanghai – Hong Kong – Brisbane – Tauranga – Lyttelton – New Plymouth – Yokohama. From an Asia to Australia trade perspective the direct Shanghai and Hong Kong to Brisbane southbound transit times of 12 and 9 days, respectively, are of key importance.
The AAUS northern loop, the AAUS southern loop and the ANZL service in combination will provide shippers with three arrivals per week ex North/East Asia in Brisbane and two arrivals per week in Sydney and Melbourne.