A total of seven 4,000-teu container ships, in collaboration with K-Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping, plus SENATOR LINES members of the CKHYS partnership alliance founded in 2001 (the name comes from the initials of the companies involved: Cosco, K-Line, Yang Ming, Hanjin and SENATOR LINES) link the business centres of Asia with the Mediterranean, offering weekly departures in the following sequence:
Shanghai - Ningbo - Hong Kong - Singapore - Port Said - Naples - La Spezia - Barcelona - Port Kelang - Hong Kong - Kaohsiung ' Shanghai.
On November 18the Hanjin Valencia will start the first westward journey in Shanghai. The same ship will be starting the first eastward journey on December 10 from Naples.
In June this year SENATOR LINES first launched four optimized Asia services with increased capacity in North and South China, plus improved transit times.
CEO Hans-Hermann Mohr says, "Since we have mainly utilized slot chartering to expand our market position as the Europe-Asia specialist, we have become more flexible, and as a company we are well into the black."
Thus, SENATOR LINES ended the 2004 business year with an operating result of ' 63 million, an unparalleled rise of almost 80% on the previous year.
Mohr is optimistic, too, in his forecast for 2005, despite a considerable increase in operating costs: "Since we withdrew from USA business at the end of 2002, we have the right structure and the right strategy, and thus the right coordinates to ensure SENATOR stays profitable."
