Starting from September 15, 2016, Switzerland-headquartered Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) plans to launch a new service on the Transpacific Trade in an effort to “assist shippers following the recent Hanjin announcement.” 

The move comes after the South Korean shipping company, Hanjin Shipping, decided to file for court receivership on August 31, 2016.

MSC’s new Maple service will include six 5,000 TEU vessels calling at Busan (South Korea), Shanghai, Yantian (China), Prince Rupert (Canada), Busan.

The first two sailings will call Yantian, Shanghai, Busan and Long Beach (US) in order to cover “the anticipated high initial demand.”

MSC joined efforts with Maersk Line, which together form the 2M Alliance, to cover Hanjin’s service. Maersk Line also announced its plans set up a new service between Asia and the United States West Coast, the TP1 service, effective September 15, 2016. The service will cover Yantian, Shanghai, Busan and Los Angeles/Long Beach.

Image Courtesy: MSC

German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd has received an approval from its shareholders during the company’s annual general meeting held on Friday on creating the capital conditions required for the planned merger with the Arabian carrier United Arab Shipping Company (UASC).

Hapag-Lloyd’s shareholders approved the creation of new authorised share capital which is “to be used for the merger with the liner shipping company UASC, which is to be incorporated into Hapag-Lloyd as a contribution in kind.”

The shareholders also approved the expansion of the Supervisory Board from the current twelve members to 16, which is to take place once the merger with UASC is concluded.

The merger is still subject to antitrust approvals, according to the company.

“The pending merger with UASC is another strategic milestone for Hapag-Lloyd,” said Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd AG.

“This merger gives us the large vessels we need in order to achieve low transport costs per container. With the investments already made by UASC in these ship classes, Hapag-Lloyd will not need to make any more investments in large vessels in the next few years,” he added.

The two container carriers earlier signed a Business Combination Agreement (BCA), subject to the necessary regulatory and contractual approvals.

Following regulatory and contractual approvals expected to be obtained by the end of 2016, the new Hapag-Lloyd will own and operate 237 vessels with a total transport capacity of around 1.6 million TEU. The new company is expected to handle an annual transport volume of 10 million TEU and have a combined turnover of approximately USD 12 billion.

Hong Kong-based shipowner Seaspan Corporation has added a new containership to its fleet today as it took delivery of the 10,000 TEU boxship Maersk Genoa.

The new vessel, which was constructed at Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding, is Seaspan’s eleventh 10,000 TEU SAVER design containership and fifth delivery in 2016.

Maersk Genoa will commence a five-year, fixed-rate time charter with Danish shipping giant Maersk Line, the company said, adding that “Maersk may extend the charter with two consecutive one-year options.”

The ship is the second of a total of two 10,000 TEU SAVER design vessels to be chartered by Seaspan to Maersk.

The delivery of Maersk Genoa expands the company’s operating fleet to 89 vessels with an age of six years.

Seaspan’s managed fleet consists of 115 containerships representing a total capacity of over 920,000 TEU, including 12 newbuilding containerships on order scheduled for delivery to Seaspan and third parties by the end of 2017

German port operator Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) has ordered three additional container gantry cranes for its Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT) that will enable the terminal to handle ships with a capacity of 20,000 TEUs or more. 

The cranes, to be built by German crane manufacturer Liebherr, are expected to go into operation at the end of 2017. CTT will then have five 20,000-TEU gantry cranes.

The new cranes will have a jib length of 74 meters and a lifting height of 51.5 meters above the quay wall. They are designed for container ships with 24 transverse container rows and can operate in twin mode. Each container gantry crane will weigh 1,500 tons, handling a maximum payload of 63 tons.

In June 2015, CTT placed an order for two container gantry cranes which can handle the biggest ships in the world. Being built by the same company, the cranes will begin operating at Tollerort by November, according to HHLA.

Last month, HHLA’s Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB) received three gantry cranes from Chinese crane manufacturer ZPMC. Following the delivery of the three cranes, HHLA has now a total of eight gantry cranes at CTB.

According to Stefan Bahn, member of the Executive Board of HHLA, the terminal operator will now have three berths that can handle larger ships, two at Burchardkai and one at Tollerort.

HHLA’s container volumes stood at 3.2 million TEUs in the first half of this year, compared to 3.4 million TEUs in the same period last year, a decrease of 5.7%.

GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) has signed a purchase-and-leaseback transaction with Korean Air Lines for five new Boeing 777 freighters as part of the Asian carrier’s fleet renewal programme.

The commercial aircraft leasing arm of GE said that deliveries of the GE90-powered aircraft freighters are scheduled in late 2016 and 2017.

Korean Air Cargo currently operates a fleet of some 30 freighter aircraft which, together the South Korean’s passenger division, serves 125 destinations in 40 countries.

Korean Air Cargo announced a decision to buy five B777Fs worth $1.5bn early in 2015. The B777F is a long-range twin-engine freighter, capable of flying 4,900 nautical miles with a full payload at general cargo market densities. 

Formed in 2000, GECAS' Cargo Aircraft Group currently leases nearly 100 freighters to airline customers worldwide. Its fleet includes the Boeing 737, 767, 747 and 777 freighter models. 

As announced in 2015, GECAS is currently conducting a programme of converting up to 20 B737-800NG passenger aircraft to freighters.

All-cargo airline CAL Cargo Airlines has announced that from September 15 it will begin to offer flights to San Juan in Puerto Rico and is hoping to add more flights to the Americas in the future.

The call in San Juan is in addition to stops in Tel Aviv, Liege and JFK. On the return the service goes from San Juan to Rome and Liege before heading back to Tel Aviv.

There are trucking connections to all European and US destinations.

The Israeli-owned airline told Air Cargo News in June that it was considering adding new flights to the Americas, shortly after taking delivery of its third aircraft; a Boeing 747-400 freighter.

"We’re thrilled to open the flights to San Juan,” said Offer Gilboa, chairman and chief executive of the CAL Group. “We recently added a third B747-400 freighter to our fleet, and now with San Juan we are continuing our momentum to expand our network throughout the Americas”.

Gilboa said that pharma was its biggest product and that it had identified San Juan as a hub for this type of shipment.

"Given our equipment, team and experience, CAL is uniquely positioned to support the needs of the local catchment area," he added.