Maersk Line has established a new Vessel Sharing Agreement with Swiss carrier Mediterranean Shipping Company and French-based CMA-CGM in the trans-Pacific trade that will commence in April 2008.
This cooperation will consist of three strings of five vessels each between Asia and North America. They will replace Maersk Line's TP5 and TP8, MSC's New Orient Express and CMA-CGM's Yang Tse Service. "Rates have not supported our cost to serve on different products in the Pacific. We felt that a partnership of this sort would not only enable us to address our cost structure, but also to provide a dynamic enhanced product for our customers, without adding any capacity on the market," commented Vincent Clerc, Vice President of Pacific Route Management for Maersk Line. The first string of this VSA will serve a port call rotation of Yantian, Kaohsiung, Shanghai, Qingdao, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, with five 8,000TEU vessels. Maersk Line and the remaining vessel by CMA-CGM will operate four of these vessels. The first string of the VSA, as the southern loop, is scheduled for its initial eastbound call at Shanghai on April 14, 2008. The second string of this VSA will also consist of five 8,00TEU vessels, four of which will be operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company and one by CMA-CGMApril 7, 2008.
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