End of the Line

THE Alliance announced in September that their AL6 service would stop calling in Halifax in December, and with today's arrival of Bilbao Bridge that has now happened.  The cut was originally to stop in the spring but the operators recanted in February, however at only about 200 boxes a week according to some sources, the Halifax stop was not profitable. The service operated jointly with THE Alliance members  Japanese consortium ONE, HAPAG-Lloyd and Yan Ming with ZIM, has now taken on CMA CGM and COSCO / OOCL. The previous port rotation of Salerno, Livorno, Genoa, Marseiile/Fos, Halifax, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Salerno will change to La Spezia, Genoa, Fos, Barcelona, Valencia, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Miami, Algeciras, La Spezia.

A truck carrying a UASC container crosses the MacKay bridge as Bilbao Bridge heads for sea on what is likely its last visit to Halifax. The container may have arrived earlier today on the same ship.

(UASC is now part of HAPG-Lloyd)

THE Alliance's AL7 service, actually operated by ZIM will now carry the former AL6 traffic to Halifax in a slot charter arrangement. However those ships will call at Halterm, rather than Cerescorp in Fairview Cove as the AL6 did.

The AL6 was operated originally with K-Line ships. Although those ships have now been merged into ONE (Ocean Network Express) the ships retain their K-Line identity. They are owned by Washington Group's Seaspan International on long term charter. All were built by the Samsung in Koje in 2011, 2012 and are 4526 TEU ships.    Berlin Bridge, Bilbao Bridge, Brotonne Bridge, Brevik Bridge and Budapest Bridge will be reassigned to other services within THE Alliance.

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