The flow of Australian exports and Asian imports are set to be affected by the merger of two shipping services linking Southeast Asia and Australia, into a single weekly service.
Hanjin container ship
Announced in March, the decision was taken in an attempt to streamline shipping services incorporating Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The introduction of larger 3,400-3,600 teu container ships means the number of ships is reduced from 8 to 5.
It is believed that consolidating these overlapping services and deploying fewer but bigger ships increases efficiency without reducing the quality of service to their customers.
The merger, which takes effect in mid-April, sees ASA (Singapore-Australia Service) or AUS (Australia Service for Hanjin Shipping only) combine with SAL (Asia-Australia Container Service), to create a new consolidated service named ASAL (Southeast Asia-Australia Service) or AUS.
The shipping lines involved are ANL, Hanjin Shipping, OOCL and RCL, which operate four 1,900 teu box ships covering Jakarta – Singapore – Brisbane – Sydney – Melbourne – Jakarta, and CSCL, HMM, Hapag-Lloyd and UASC, operating four 2,250 teu box ships rotating Port Klang – Singapore – Sydney – Melbourne – Adelaide – Port Klang.
The new service will be operated jointly by CSCL, Hanjin Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, RCL, and UASC, with HMM and OOCL participating through slot purchase only.
Sailings will be weekly, serving all of the previous ports in one rotation: Port Klang – Singapore – Brisbane – Sydney – Melbourne – Adelaide – Jakarta – Port Klang.
