EVERGREEN and Cosco Container Lines (Coscon) plan to split their existing ESA service, linking Asia, South Africa and the east coast of South America in a bid to create two new services.

The upgraded services will be known as the new ESA service between the Far East and South America; and FAX, a new Far East - South Africa service.

A joint statement said, the revised ESA service will provide faster transit times between major ports in the Far East and South America, while the new FAX service will provide direct calls at the major ports in central and southern China.

Under the revised ESA schedule, nine vessels of 2,800 TEU will be deployed, with Evergreen providing six of the nine vessels and Coscon, three.

The port rotation for the new ESA service will be: Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Santos, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santos, Singapore, Hong Kong, and back to Shanghai.

The new FAX service will employ eight 3,400-TEU vessels. Five will be operated by Evergreen and three by Coscon.

The port rotation for the new FAX service will be: Shanghai, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Durban, Cape Town, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Shanghai.

The first sailing from Shanghai on the revised ESA service will be undertaken by Evergreen's Cordelia on May 15 while the first FAX sailing from Shanghai will be launched by Evergreen's Ever Guest on May 18.