eeSea updates for Ocean Alliance Product 2021

18 Jan

Ocean Alliance carriers have published upcoming 2021 product details to commence in April. Published details include service names and rotations without specific schedule information. Vessel names and capacities also remain unknown at this time.

COPENHAGEN – 18 January, 2021

This year’s update is relatively minor, with most services seeing no changes at all. One service, marketed as AACI by COSCO, VCS by OOCL, and CC4 by CMA CGM, is added to the alliance’s network, though it had already been offered by COSCO for quite some time, with the other carriers joining later on separate timelines. Interestingly, the service is a pendulum, and only the Far East - West Coast North America portion is listed under the Ocean Alliance network. What will come of the other half of the service remains to be seen. OOCL, who currently only participate in the transpacific portion, do not mention a pendulum, and COSCO imply a pendulum with East Coast North American calls rather than the Indian Subcontinent.

Otherwise, about three quarters of the offerings see no changes, and those that do are adding and/or removing only a port or two. Tripoli is not listed for the MED3 port rotation, however it is worth noting that it was also absent from the press release last year, though the call has persisted on vessel schedules regardless. We therefore choose not to implement this change in the database until further data suggests the port will indeed drop. There are also a couple inconsistencies between the OOCL press release and COSCO’s. Namely, PSW2 keeps its Long Beach call according to OOCL but switches to Los Angeles according to COSCO, and COSCO does not list PSW7’s Yantian call while OOCL do. In these cases, we have assumed no change to the services as entered in our database, but we will of course keep an eye out for signs that they will indeed change. Additionally, OOCL do not list the Cai Mep call on the AWE6, while COSCO have moved it to before Singapore. As such a reordering seems unlikely, we have opted to assume the call is dropped in the new network.

All published service changes, reviewed in short below, have been entered into the eeSea database at this time. Updates will continue to be entered as more details are released from carriers; primarily confirmation of ports and terminals, exact ETAs and ETDs, as well as vessels deployed.

Ocean Alliance service changes

Pendulums

PSW3 & AWE3: no change
MEA4 & PSW8:
- Oakland (Note: OOCL continue not to advertise PSW8 portion.)

Asia – North Europe

NEU1:
- Kwangyang
NEU2: no change
NEU3: no change
NEU4:
- Algeciras
+ Marsaxlokk
NEU5:
- Algeciras
+ Tanger Med (eb)
+ Tanger Med (wb)
- Marsaxlokk
NEU6: no change
NEU7:
+ Xingang
- Kaohsiung
+ Piraeus

Asia – Mediterranean

MED1: no change
MED2: no change
MED3:
- Tripoli (Note that as the Tripoli call was also not mentioned in last year’s press release, yet continued to be made by vessels on the MED3 service. We therefore do not implement this change in our database until confirmation of its removal is found.)
MED5: no change

Asia – Middle East

MEA1: Sohar moved to before Jebel Ali (Note: OOCL’s press release implies connecting this service with PNW2 to make a pendulum, however COSCO’s release does not mention this, and the PNW2 listing on OOCL’s release also makes no mention of this change. For now, we treat this as an error and keep the two services separate.)
MEA3: no change
MEA4: see pendulums
MEA5: no change

Asia - Red Sea

RES1: no change
RES2: no change

Transpacific West Coast

PNW1:
- Kwangyang
PNW2: no change
PNW3: no change
PNW4: no change
PSW1:
- Fuqing
- Kaohsiung
PSW2: no change
PSW3: see pendulums
PSW5:
- Tokyo
+ Busan (not offered by OOCL)
PSW6: no change
PSW7: no change
PSW8: see pendulums (not offered by OOCL)
PSW9: no change
PSW10: Service added to network
- Port order: Laem Chabang -> Hai Phong -> Shanghai -> Ningbo -> Long Beach -> Oakland -> Lianyungang -> Shanghai
- (Note: This service already exists as a non-alliance service in a pendulum with Indian Subcontinent calls. OOCL currently participate only on the transpacific leg of the service, and their press release does not mention a pendulum. COSCO’s press release implies a pendulum with East Coast North American calls, but does not specify the rotation. For now, we keep the current rotation in the database, changing it to an alliance service, but note that it may split or restructure.)

Transpacific East Coast

AWE2: no change
AWE3: see pendulums
AWE4: no change
AWE5:
- Colon (wb)
AWE6:
- Cai Mep
AWE7: no change
AWE8: no change

Transatlantic

TAT2: no change
TAT3: no change

Totals (counting pendulums as two):

Number of services: 39
Number of services changed: 12 (11 excl. Tripoli)
Number of services (counting pendulums as one): 37
Number of services listed by OOCL: 37
Number of services listed by COSCO: 39
Number of services listed by CMA: 39

Simon Sundboell