Hanjin Shipping and Heung-A Shipping will jointly launch a new weekly service from mid-June, reshuffling the Indonesia service route. The new route, called NIS (North China Indonesia Service) (82382), will connect Xingang (~Tianjin), Qingdao, Busan and Hong Kong to Jakarta, coming back to Xingang via Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Pyongtaek (one call every two weeks) and Inchon.For Hanjin, the NIS comes as an additional loop. For Heung-A, it will succeed to its KJX service (82381). Heung-A should bring with it the KJX slot buyers, which include KMTC, HMM, Dongnama, Sinokor and MOL, although this remains to be confirmed for each of them.Hanjin says in a statement released today that the service will be run with four 1,200 teu ships while AXS-Alphaliner sources found that they will be actually ships of 1,400-1,700 teu, including the three Heung-A units plying the existing KJX (the 1,740 teu SEA ALFA, 1,684 teu BUXHILL and 1,461 teu STX ASIA).It is also understood that this Hanjin-Heung-A initiative is part of a wider arrangement encompassing also the Hanjin's Japan-Korea-Philippines-Indonesia Express (JIX - 8210), on which Heung-A will start taking slots in mid-June. The capacity of the JIX is in course of increase, with 1,700 teu ships progressively replacing 1,150 teu ones. Besides, Heung-A buys slots on another China-Indonesia service involving Hanjin, the COSCO-Hanjin NIX (8402), on which Hanjin contributes one of the four ships deployed, the 1,939 teu NORTHERN FORTUNE.Hanjin adds that the new NIS is expected ''to improve the service to Seoul and its outlying areas from Europe and to meet the demands of the cargoes of the same area by including the Korean ports of Inchon and Pyongtaek''. It is also to provide direct links between Xingang, Qingdao and Indonesia. The first sailing is planned from Xingang on 13 June.
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