Members of The Alliance have revealed plans according to which ten of their services will call at DP World’s container terminals at London Gateway and Southampton.
The Alliance, which comprises Hapag-Lloyd, K Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) and Yang Ming, said that all of its mainline UK calls will be handled by DP World, a Dubai-based port operator.
The consortium of container shipping lines will bring vessels on its FE1, FE2 and FE4 services into DP World Southampton and those on FE3 and FE5 into DP World London Gateway. All of the services link Asia and Europe. The FE3 and FE5 will be the first regular Asia-Europe services to call at DP World London Gateway, according to the port operator.
Furthermore, vessels deployed on the alliance’s transatlantic AL3, AL4 and AL5 services will call at DP World Southampton, while those on AL1 and AL2 will call at DP World London Gateway.
In a separate announcement, DP World said it will formally open its third berth at DP World London Gateway for full operations at the end of March.
“We are … looking forward to announcing the opening of Berth 3 at DP World London Gateway at the end of March, in time for The Alliance’s arrival. This third deep-water berth at the UK’s newest port, along with our three deep-water berths at DP World Southampton, offer more choice and more reliability for shippers,” Chris Lewis, UK Managing Director, DP World and CEO, DP World London Gateway, noted.
DP World Southampton container terminal will now be the only port to handle vessels operated by The Alliance, Ocean Alliance and 2M alliance, DP World said.
The Alliance is expected to deploy 21,000 TEU vessels on its services when MOL’s newbuilds come into service this year which will see DP World in the UK handle the largest ships in the world.
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