The CKYH Alliance (COSCON, “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping) has reorganized its CNEU Far East service, and is now once again offering two independent services. At the end of the season in December 2008 the AE-N and AE-S services had been combined into a single service.

With the arrival in Hamburg of the COSCO Africa and the COSCO Guangzhou, the two original round trips have been restored. Under the AE-N service, the COSCO Guangzhou (9,469 TEU) regularly sails from Dalian via Xingang (Tianjin), Qingdao, Ningbo, Nansha (Guangzhou), Singapore and Rotterdam to Hamburg, Europe’s most important seaport for trade with China and the Far East.

Under the AE-S service, the COSCO Africa (10,062 TEU) first puts in to Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Yantian (Shenzhen) and Port Kelang before docking at Hamburg, Rotterdam, Felixstowe and Le Havre.

One service operates eight, the other nine vessels of the Chinese shipping company COSCO Container Lines with capacities between 8,400 and 10,000 TEU. Four ships will be sailing under the name of the CKYH partner company Hanjin Shipping. Loading and unloading of the container cargo in Hamburg will be carried out by HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT).

Container transport between Hamburg and Asia reached a total volume of 5.5 million containers (TEU) in 2008. With 3.1 million TEU, the People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong) retained its top position in 2008 as one of the Port of Hamburg’s ten most important trading partners for container transport.