According to PR News Service, the UK-based expert in box ship services, the Grand Alliance lines, Hapag-Lloyd, NYK and OOCL are to make changes to the transpacific coverage of their Pacific/Atlantic Express pendulum service known as the PAX service from May onwards, PR News Service has learned.

New direct calls will focus on North China and Korea, and Qingdao, Tianjin and Pusan will initially be added, but there will be further additions/changes covering South China, which will be advised at a later stage.

Under the new PAX service rotation, port coverage on the transpacific sector covering North China and Korea will be :

Yokohama, Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin, Pusan, Kobe, Nagoya, Tokyo, Tacoma, Oakland, Los Angeles then on the USEC, Savannah, Norfolk, New York, Halifax, (North Europe), Halifax, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Los Angeles, Oakland, Yokohama.

Pusan/Tacoma transit time will be 14 days.

Under the present port coverage on the PAX service, Hapag-Lloyd deploys 14 x 4,600/5,000 teu vessels with a port rotation of :

Kaohsiung, Yantian, Shanghai, Kobe, Nagoya, Tokyo, Tacoma, Oakland, Los Angeles, Savannah, New York, Norfolk, Halifax, (North Europe), Halifax, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Los Angeles, Oakland, Yokohama, Kobe, Kaohsiung.

Calls are included at Cristobal, Balboa and Manzanillo (Pan) by some or all the lines for local trade/transhipment purposes.

This has a feeling of the G6 involvement spreading further, but that is only a PR News Service view at the moment.