Zim zaps Halifax

A reorganization of Zim's container routes may or may not have an effect on tonnage in the port of Halifax.
1. Zim Shanghai, on charter to Zim Container Service, arrives this morning.

Zim Container Service (ZCS) has announced that they will split their current "almost round the world" service in two. As it presently works, ship start in the Mediterranean, call in Halifax westbound, then continue down the east coast, up the west coast, across the Pacific to the far east then return on essentially the same rotation.One new route will be the ZCS Pacific, which will be far east to North American east and west coasts and back to the far east, using new 5,000 TEU ships, calling in Kingston, Jamaica to interchange transatlantic cargo for the Med.The other route, ZCS Atlantic, will have ships from the Mediterranean sailing to Kingston, Jamaica. Boxes will be interchanged there with Pacific service ships. The Atlantic service will use 4,000 TEU ships.

2. A 4,839 TEU ship, Zim Shanghai is slightly smaller than the 5,000 TEU ships to come on the new transpacific service.

Halterm expects that tonnages will remain about the same, but port calls will be halved, as only the Pacific service ships will call in Halifax.
Only time will tell of course, but is seems to me that other lines will likely pick up slack if the Zim service seems to be an inefficient way of getting boxes across the Atlantic. It also depends on the balance of import/export cargo.

3. Other lines, such as Hapag-Lloyd may pick up more cargo if their transatlantic services are faster or more efficient. Kobe Express arrives Friday evening, June 16 in advance of a huge fog bank.

Read more on Zim's announcement in the Halifax Chronicle Herald:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1248967.html