THE MOST serious challenge in many a decade to the status quo in the Australia/New Zealand-Americas trade has formally launched with the first sailing of MSC’s Eagle service from Port Botany.
The 2,556 TEU Etoile, fitted with 600 reefer plugs, loaded in Port Botany on Sunday — a milestone welcomed by host Patrick, which worked the vessel at its AutoStrad terminal and which will similarly host the Eagle service in Brisbane.
Etoile is today [3 February] at Melbourne’s VICT as Eagle’s ‘first flight’ embarks on the weekly rotation of Sydney — Melbourne — Brisbane — Wellington — Tauranga — Rodman — Cristobal — Philadelphia — Savannah — Freeport — Rodman — Papeete — Auckland — Sydney.
MSC says Eagle strengthens its commitment as an individual carrier, offering Australian shippers a direct connection to the US East Coast ports of Savannah and Philadelphia, with additional connectivity via Panama to/from the USA, Europe, Central and South America, and US Gulf ports.
Eleven ships are being deployed, ranging from 2,556 TEU to 4,363 TEU and all with substantial reefer capacity, signalling the service’s primary target market and pinpointing the challenge to existing carriers on the ANZ-East Coast North America route, Maersk and CMA CGM/Marfet, which have begun a co-operative arrangement with CMA CGM now taking slots with the former.
MSC is phasing its fleet into Eagle in Port Botany through positioning voyages, mostly from China, either using the line’s existing Koala, Panda and Wallaby services or through the dedicated Kangaroo service.
At least six of the ships have been or are being freshly drydocked in Shanghai, possibly to ensure trouble-free voyages and/or to head off market mutterings about the age of some of the ships employed. Most were originally built for reputed German owners, by Hyundai and Samsung, for long-term charter to P&O Nedlloyd and have previously worked in ANZ services.
“MSC is very encouraged by the strong support the service has received from both importers and exporters,” a spokesperson told DCN. “With all vessels lined up and ready to be deployed, the Eagle service is well positioned to deliver the reliability and service continuity Australian shippers expect.
“This milestone represents an important step forward for MSC Australia and New Zealand, expanding long-term market opportunities for customers throughout the Americas and beyond.”
As a consequence of the introduction of Eagle, and due to NZ’s Tauranga running out of suitable windows, MSC has added Port Chalmers calls to the Wallaby service with Eagle taking Wallaby’s Tauranga slot, and transhipment taking place over Wellington.