Two of the biggest container lines serving South America are teaming up in a concerted move to reduce capacity on the trade and stabilise freight rates.
Mediterranean Shipping Co and Hamburg Süd will be restructuring their services between the Mediterranean and South American east coast next month.
The pair have worked together in the past, but this will be their only current joint-venture.
Two separate services will be fused into one loop that will be operated by eight vessels of 5,900teu nominal capacity. Of those, MSC will provide seven ships initially, with Hamburg Süd contributing one.
Hamburg Süd said it had been operating five ships on this route, and would not be laying up any of those to be withdrawn.
One would remain in the service, while the other four were to be transferred to its Levant service, which was also undergoing a shake-up, the German line said.
MSC is the biggest player in the Europe-South America trades, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, deploying 27 ships with combined capacity of almost 137,000teu, Maersk Line is the second largest, followed by Hamburg Süd, deploying 16 vessels totalling 68,500teu.
The new port rotation will be Valencia, Gioia Tauro Livorno, Genoa, Fos, Barcelona, Valencia, Suape, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio Grande, Navegantes, Itapoá, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Suape, Tangier and Valencia.
Box lines are frantically trying to remove surplus tonnage from key trade lanes at the end of what looks set to be a dismal year for financial results. Vessel sharing agreements also enable participants to deploy the most suitable ships for each trade.
MSC recently teamed up with CMA CGM in the Asia-Europe trades, while lines from the Grand and New World Alliances are joining forces on the route as well.
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