News / MSC to launch Europe-Asia-North America service

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In a bid to rationalise capacity across its network, MSC is reorganising its Asia-Europe and transpacific services and launching a single Europe-Asia-North America pendulum service.

The Swan-Sentosa service will be formed by bringing together MSC’s existing Asia-Europe Swan service and combining it with its transpacific Asia-US west coast Sentosa service, which at the moment is connected to MSC’s India-Far East Shikra service, in an India-Asia-North America combined loop.

According to Alphaliner, the Swan-Sentosa service will deploy 20 vessels of between 8,000 teu and 19,500 teu capacity and is set to launch with the departure of the 19,200 teu MSC Sveva from Qingdao on 2 July

The new service will feature the following port rotation: Qingdao-Ningbo-Shanghai-Yantian-Tanjung Pelepas-Felixstowe-Antwerp-Hamburg-Gdansk-Gdynia-Klaipeda-Bremerhaven-Antwerp-Singapore-Laem Chabang-Cai Mep-Busan-Long Beach-Oakland-Busan-Qingdao.

A round voyage is expected to take 20 weeks to complete.

Alpahliner added that the redeployment would turn the Shikra service once more into a standalone string.

“It is obvious that the start of the new pendulum will lead to the end of the current Far East-India-California ‘Sentosa-Shikra’ service, which was launched in September 2023 as a result of merging the Sentosa and Shikra loops.

“MSC will continue the Far East-India leg again as a standalone Shikra service, which will turn in seven weeks,” it said.