Ocean cargo/global logistics: Two more carriers add capacity to transpacific

Evergreen and China Shipping will commence a new transpacific service later this month linking Los Angeles and Oakland with central and northern China to be called the China/South U.S. West Coast Service 2 (CPS2). This additional service is in response to the booming Asia/U.S. market. Rates for charter have been become more stable, too.

The port rotation is Oakland, Los Angeles, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Oakland. The CPS2 service will initially deploy five 4,000-TEU (twenty equivalent unit) vessels by Evergreen Line and China Shipping. Round-trip transit time will be 35 days.

The first vessel to depart will be “Ever Develop” from Qingdao on May 29 and expected to arrive in Oakland on June 13.

Evergreen is already involved in the original CPS service via a slot charter agreement with China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) on its Asia America Central (AAC) service. Ports on the CPS2 service are covered by the AAC/CPS service

The announcement comes at a time when spot rates are also firming up, noted analysts for Drewry Shipping Consultants.

The spot rate for shipping a 40-foot container from Hong Kong to Los Angeles was bumped up to $2,189 per FEU (forty equivalent units) earlier this month, in the week ended May 3.

The Drewry container rate benchmark for the Transpacific was 10.8 percent, or $213 per FEU, higher than the average rate of $1,976 per FEU recorded in the week ended April 26 and over $2,000 per FEU for the first time since February,

The latest spot rate was 112.8 percent higher than in the same week of 2009, when trans-Pacific rates were still heading down in the rate war that dragged carriers’ bottom lines down as well.