Hamburg Port serves Grand Alliance's new Far East-Europe EU5 loop

A CONTAINER ship operated by German shipping line Hamburg Sud, the 3,322-TEU Oslo Express, was the first ship in the new Far East-Europe (EU5) liner service of the Grand Alliance to recently sail for the Port of Hamburg.

The Oslo Express is the first of eight container ships used in this new weekly Far East container shipping service to be cleared at the HHLA Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA).

The new Grand Alliance liner service focuses on Central and South China as well as Southeast Asia and links the Chinese ports of Shanghai, Ningbo and Xiamen, as well as the city state of Singapore, to the northern European continent.

The ports of destination in northern Europe are Hamburg, Amsterdam and Southampton.

In addition to the Oslo Express, the EU5 service is deploying the 6,039-TEU newbuild Wan Hai 605 chartered by MISC. The service is also deploying ships with an average cargo capacity of 4,700 TEU, namely: the NYK Leo, the OOCL America, the Bunga Pelangi Dua (MISC), Hapag-Lloyd's Southampton Express, the MISC Merlion, and OOCL's Meta. By deploying eight ships a round trip will take 56.

Following the launch of the new EU5 service, the number of container shipping services destined for the Port of Hamburg has risen to 29. In traffic with China alone, 26 container services offer direct connections between Hamburg and Chinese ports, a statement from the port authorities said.