CMA CGM expands 6,000-teu box fleet with new orders and charters
Containership newbuilding orders this week have been dominated by 6,000 teu-plus ships, but interest in ...
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CMA CGM appears to be on the verge of launching a standalone Asia-Europe service to provide direct calls to Japanese exporters.
This coming April will see the world’s fourth largest economy lose its last direct shipping link to Europe, The Loadstar reported in December, with all direct calls at Japanese ports set to be dropped from the Premier Alliance’s 2026 Asia-Europe network, and in a move that most clearly resembles the Gemini strategy, Premier Alliance member ONE said the group would introduce a new feeder network connecting Japan to another member HMM’s hub in Busan.
“Additional dedicated feeder services will be provided for Kaohsiung, Xiamen, Tokyo, Kobe, and Nagoya, transiting via Busan to ensure seamless and reliable connections to the main east–west Loops,” ONE added.
However, shipping abhors a vacuum almost as much as nature, and French carrier CMA CGM is reported to be planning to launch a new Japan-North Europe service in April, named the Ocean Rise service.
“The timing coincides with the closure of the Premier Alliance North Europe-Japan-US west coast ‘FP1’ pendulum service, which currently offers the only direct connections between Japanese ports and North Europe,” Alphaliner writes this week.
The analyst added that the service is expected to employ 14 ships of between 7,500 teu and 9,300 teu capacity with the first sailing scheduled to be the 2 April departure of the 8,000 teu CMA CGM Byblos from Kobe on 2 April.
The vessel is currently deployed on CMA CGM’s Asia-east coast South America SEAS3 service operated in conjunction with Maersk, however, according to the vessel’s forward sailing schedules it is due to arrive and then depart in Kobe on 2 April and arrive in Nagoya the following day.
The proposed port rotation of the Ocea Rise string is Kobe-Nagoya-Yokohama-Xiamen-Yantian-Rotterdam-Hamburg-Southampton-Nansha.
Notably, unlike almost every other Asia-Europe service, the Ocean Rise proforma schedule does not include a south-east Asia transhipment call, further indicating that the service is solely targeting Japanese exporters to Europe.
And it also appears that CMA CGM intends to run the string in a standalone operation – according to Xeneta’s eeSea liner database, the carrier has so far drawn up nine vessel slots for the service, and nominated another six vessels as well as the CMA CGM Byblos, all of which are CMA CGM-operated ships, and comprise the Cypress, Berlita, CMA CGM Yukon, CMA CGM Mekong, APL Charleston and CMA CGM Shanghai.
“Forward schedules show that ‘Ocean Rise’ will solely be provided by the French carrier’s tonnage, suggesting that it could be operated outside of the Ocean Alliance scope,” Alphaliner writes this week.
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