The four partners of THE Alliance have announced the first details of their new 2021 network. The temporarily discontinued FE4 Service to and from the Far East returns to Antwerp, but that service will receive a double call in Rotterdam.
Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Yang Ming are not quite done with their homework. For example, the details about the new offer between Northern Europe and North America, where some changes in the transatlantic services are expected, are still lacking. The four partners also have to make some port choices in South China. They have already broadly published the rotations for the east-west services from the Far East to Europe and the United States as they will look like from April 2021. The extra sailings from China to Antwerp, among others, under the name FE4, will be canceled because the temporarily suspended FE4 Service will be restarted. This concerns the regular service for which HMMs twelve record ships of 24,000 teu are destined. Its rotation is only being tinkered with in Europe.
Three approaches
The new FE4 will no longer call at a British port. The European rotation will be Algeciras, Rotterdam (unloading), Hamburg, Antwerp and then again Rotterdam and Algeciras. The second call from Rotterdam (export call after Antwerp) is new and replaces the previous call at London-Gateway. In the Far East, the FE4 ships will load in Qingdao, Busan, Ningbo, Shanghai and a yet to be chosen South China port (possibly Yantian).
In the new set-up, Antwerp will retain three weekly calls from Far East Services (FE3, F4 and FP2). The restart of the FE4 Service is expected to be accompanied by the return of a number of smaller 15,000 TEU vessels to FE3 service. The restart of the FE4 also means that the temporary changes in the rotation of the FE2 will be undone. This is especially good news for the Normandy port of Le Havre, which will once again welcome the service with megamax ships.
New service
There is only one completely new service in the 2021 network. That is the EC6 Service that will connect Asia to the US Gulf. Houston, Mobile and New Orleans will thus have a direct connection to Taiwan, China and South Korea.
The EC1 and EC3 services between the Far East and the East Coast of the United States will still continue to be combined into one service. The eleven ships of 8,073 to 9,592 teu in that service will all be replaced by larger tonnage of 13,500 teu.
Verberckmoes, S. (2020, December 22). THE Alliance confirms return of large FE4 Service to Antwerp. flow. Retrieved on 23 December 2021, from https://www.flows.be/nl/shipping/alliance- confirmt-return-grant-fe4-service-naar-antwerpen