South Korean intra-Asia carriers Korea Marine Transport Company (KMTC), Namsung Shipping and CK Line have enhanced their South Korea-China-Japan services to capture more cargo volumes from western and southern Japan.
The trio, which already operate one New China-Setouchi (NCS) service, will launch a supplementary NCS2 service. The original NCS service began in June 2019, deploying two 700TEU ships on the Busan-Shanghai-Ningbo-Moji-Iyomishima-Mizushima-Moji-Hakata-Busan-Ulsan loop.
The carriers decided to split the calls to Moji, Mizushima and Hakata into the NCS2 route, which will also have a call at Hiroshima port.
After the adjustment, NCS’ port calls will be Busan, Niigata, Kanazawa, Toyama, Busan, Ulsan, Shanghai, Ningbo and Busan. KMTC Line will deploy the 1,100TEU Mitra Bhum, which is chartered from Thai feeder operator Regional Container Lines while Namsung will assign one of its owned ships, the 950TEU Star Express.
The 700TEU Conmar Moon started the NCS2 service with the CK Line chartered vessel, chartered from Conmar Shipping, a German tonnage provider.
The NCS service was created when Sinokor Merchant Marine acquired Heung-A Shipping’s container shipping operations in 2019. Prior to that, Sinokor, Heung-A, KMTC Line, CK Line and Namsung had jointly operated two services connecting South Korea with western Japan.
A KMTC official told Container News, “We’re rationalising our calls at ports in western Japan while improving our coverage of the Kyushu region in Japan.”
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
