Hamburg Sued, Maersk Line, and NYK have announced reaching an agreement to operate jointly in the trade between Asia, South Africa, and South America.

As from mid April onwards, the lines will replace the presently operated 3 strings (one operated by Maersk Line and 2 operated by Hamburg Sued and NYK) by 2 strings with modern and fast vessels. The overall capacity produced by the new two string system is roughly the same as the capacity presently provided by the three Lines.

The rotation of the new service will be as follows:

String 1 operated with 10 x 3,500 TEU vessels of which Hamburg Sued will provide 6 and Maersk Line 4: Shanghai - Hong Kong - Singapore - Tanjung Pelepas - Sepetiba - Santos - Buenos Aires - Rio Grande - Paranagua - Santos - Port Elizabeth - Durban - Singapore - Hong Kong - Shanghai

String 2 operated with 10 x 2,500 TEU vessels of which NYK will provide 6, Maersk Line 3 and Hamburg Sued one: Nagoya - Yokohama - Pusan - Hong Kong - Laem Chabang - Singapore - Tanjung Pelepas - Durban - Santos - Itajai - Santos - Sepetiba - Singapore - Hong Kong - Nagoya.