THE FIRST of the A3 consortium’s upsized vessels in its northern loop (A3N) arrived in Melbourne yesterday [24 July].
The 7,111 TEU ALS Hercules, chartered by ANL, is also the additional, seventh vessel for the service which has added a Ningbo call for a new rotation of Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Melbourne, port Botany, Brisbane, Yokohama.
ALS Hercules is being followed by sister ALS Clivia, then the 7,092 TEU Pelion and two more 7,111 TEU sisters ALS Juno and ALS Luna. The last four respectively replace CMA CGM Fjordland (5,920 TEU, CMA CGM Etosha (6,014 TEU), CMA CGM Rabelais (6,758 TEU) and CMA CGM Zingaro (6,014 TEU).
Currently service partners COSCO Shipping and OOCL are sticking with 5,816 TEU Tian Xiang He and the 5,762 TEU OOCL Shanghai for now.
At the time of announcing the A3N upgrade early last month ANL said the additional vessel will assist in delivering greater schedule reliability and support greater cargo volumes. Including a Ningbo stopover would give A3 two sailing per week, as the A3C service also calls there.
ANL claims the southbound transits from Kaohsiung are the fastest in the market, while COSCO notes that A3N will offer the fastest Ningbo-Melbourne connection while A3C has the fastest Ningbo-Port Botany leg. OOCL is highlighting that A3N remains the only direct weekly service from East Coast Australia to Yokohama and Osaka. “With northbound calls into Pusan and Qingdao, it is the top service for Australian exporters of dry and reefer cargo to Japan, Korea, and North China,” the line said.
Separately, one for ship spotters: ANL is introducing the 10,034 TEU CMA CGM Tanya to the AAX-S service from South East Asia next month.
The 94,440 GT, 2016-built vessel is named after Tanya Saadé-Zeenny, daughter of CMA CGM founder Jacques Saadé and brother of group CEO and chairman Rodolphe Saadé. Ms Saadé-Zeenny is a director and Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group and President of the CMA CGM Foundation.
CMA CGM Tanya will indirectly replace the 8,721 TEU CMA CGM Tancredi.