Grand Alliance joins CKYH in Vietnam to link US east coast

GRAND ALLIANCE carriers Hong Kong OOCL, Hapag-Lloyd and NYK, have announced they will add a call at Vietnam's Cai Mep deepwater port to their Asia East Coast

Express (AEX) service from January 9.

The consortium joins CKYH carriers, Cosco, "K" Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin, who call at Cai Mep, linking it to Norfolk, New York and Halifax on their round-the-world

AWE-4 service. The Grand Alliance rotation will be: Cai Mep, Laem Chabang, Singapore, Colombo, Cagliari, Halifax, New York, Savannah, Norfolk, New York, Halifax,

Cagliari, Jeddah, Colombo, Singapore and Cai Mep.

This provides for double calls in New York and Halifax and uses ships with an average capacity of 5,500 TEU compared to the 3,850-TEU class ships typically used

on the CKYH service. Cai Mep is Vietnam's big deepwater port 65 miles from Ho Chi Minh City.