Lines merge Southeast Asia-Australia services

Container carriers operating separate services on the Southeast Asia-Australia trade have decided to merge their respective services with effect from mid-April.
ASA (Singapore-Australia Service) or AUS (Australia Service for Hanjin Shipping only), currently operated by ANL, Hanjin Shipping, OOCL and RCL with four of 1,900 teu boxships covering Jakarta – Singapore – Brisbane – Sydney – Melbourne – Jakarta, will be combined with an existing SAL (Asia-Australia Container Service) operated by CSCL, HMM, Hapag-Lloyd and UASC with four of 2,250 teu boxships rotating Port Klang – Singapore – Sydney – Melbourne – Adelaide – Port Klang.
The newly consolidated service named ASAL (Southeast Asia-Australia Service) or AUS will be jointly operated by CSCL, Hanjin Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, RCL, and UASC with five of 3,400-3,600 teu container vessels offering weekly sailings to and from all ports previously covered by the separate services.
HMM and OOCL will participate in the service through slot purchase.
The partners believed that consolidating overlapping services through the deployment of fewer but bigger ships will increase efficiency whilst still maintaining quality service for customers.
Source: Seatrade Global