News / Hapag-Lloyd reveals rotation changes to Asia-Europe CGX service

Photo: VesselFinder

As carriers prepare for a new liner alliance landscape next year, moves are under way to rejig service networks, with some of the biggest changes to take place on the Asia-North Europe trade.

At the end of last week, it emerged that Gemini partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd had elected London Gateway to serve as their UK port on Asia-North Europe, in preference to Felixstowe, leaving MSC by far the largest carrier calling at the UK’s biggest port – although the Ocean Alliance has two Asia-North Europe calls at Felixstowe, its NEU1 and NEU6 strings.

one local forwarder told The Loadstar: “Felixstowe will suffer, obviously, and increases the importance of MSC, primarily.

“Ocean Alliance will also still have regular calls on multiple services, but it’s still a major kick in the teeth for the UK’s biggest port.”

Meanwhile, the German carrier has announced a shake-up of its standalone China-Germany Express service.

From the beginning of January, two new Chinese calls, at Shanghai and Ningbo, are to be added, while in Europe, a call at Antwerp will be dropped and calls at Rotterdam and Southampton introduced.

The full port rotation is: Yangshan-Ningbo -Yantian-Singapore-Tema-Southampton-Rotterdam-Wilhelmshaven.

According to the eeSea liner database, the CGX service deploys 12 vessels, with an average 4,200 teu capacity, while Hapag-Lloyd said the new rotation would kick off with the departure of the 6,500 teu Copiapo from Shanghai on 3 January.

As part of the rearrangement, Hapag-Lloyd will end its slot charter agreement with the Ocean Alliance on the CMA CGM-led grouping’s NEU5 Asia-North Europe service at the end of the year.

That slot-charter deal was signed at the beginning of 2023, partly to mitigate the closure of the CGX service, which Hapag-Lloyd had launched as an extra-loader between the Chinese port of Da Chan Bay and Hamburg to mitigate port congestion during the pandemic.

Hapag-Lloyd reinstated the CGX in June this year in response to the surge of demand that marked the trade’s unexpected early peak season.

According to eeSea, Hapag-Lloyd had been allocated 10% of the NEU5 capacity under what it called the FE9 service – the last sailing of the FE9 will be the departure of the 23,100 teu CMA CGM Rivoli from Qingdao on 30 December.