Hamburg Sud buys Evergreen slots

THE GERMAN sea carrier, Hamburg Sud, has just signed up a slot charter agreement on Evergreen's weekly service between Asia, SA and the South American east coast. But, as FTW went to print, it was still not clear whether calls at SA are part of the schedule for Hamburg Sud. According to Dynaliner, the electronic newsletter from the Belgian marine consultants, Dynamar, SA is "not included". Also, FTW has not been able to find even the faintest whisper of Hamburg Sud's SA agency plans - if any - from the local ships agents' community. According to an Evergreen source, the deal has seen the German line taking over the slots previously contracted to Yang Min, with this line intending to pull out of its agreement on November 1. So, with the November 8 sailing of the Ever Guest from Hong Kong, Hamburg Sud will be providing a weekly service on Evergreen's 10-vessel fleet serving the port rotation of Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Singapore, Durban, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santos, Cape Town, Durban, Singapore and Hong Kong. This is another of Hamburg Sud's new ventures in the southern hemisphere. According to information from Germany, the new service joins that of subsidiary carrier, Columbus Line which introduced a service from South America's west coast, via the US west coast, to the Far East earlier this year.