Hamburg Sud and Maersk Line to establish new Oceania - N America service

German-based carrier Hamburg Süd and Denmark's Maersk Line have agreed a new vessel sharing arrangement. The two lines say that, subject to regulatory approval, they will establish a weekly service from Australia/New Zealand to the East Coast of North America from the end of May or early June.
Twelve vessels with a nominal capacity of 2,800 TEU and a reefer plug capacity of 530 plugs will be employed. Each carrier will provide six vessels.
The port rotation will be: Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney (Australia), Melbourne (Australia), Port Chalmers (New Zealand), Tauranga (New Zealand), Auckland (New Zealand), Manzanillo (Panama), Cartagena (Colombia), Savannah (US), Philadelphia (US), Tilbury (UK), Bremerhaven (Germany), Antwerp (Belgium), Philadelphia (US), Savannah (US), Balboa (Panama), Auckland (New Zealand).
The North Europe leg (Transatlantic/Europe and Europe/Oceania/Europe) of this service will only be offered by Hamburg Süd whereas Maersk Line will maintain its present service from Oceania to North Europe via Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia.
This new service will replace the existing Hamburg Süd Trident Service and the current Maersk Line Oceania Service to the U.S. East Coast. Subject to obtaining regulatory approval the implementation is scheduled for the end of May early June 2008.