While Haifa-headquartered ZIM has announced a “restructuring of its Oceania-Asia service network”, the Israeli ocean carrier seems to withdraw from the specific trade lane.
Trying to take drastic steps to cut its losses after a second quarter of red ink, ZIM has decided to cover the Oceania-Asia lane mainly by buying slots from MSC.
In particular, on the Southeast Asia – Australia trade, ZIM’s current Thailand-Fremantle Express (TFX) and New Zealand to Australia (N2A) services will be withdrawn and will be replaced by slots on MSC’s Capricorn and New Kiwi service.
The revised Capricorn service, which ZIM brands as ZIM Oceania Express (ZOX), will have the following port rotation:
Singapore – Jakarta – Fremantle – Melbourne – Napier – Tauranga – Brisbane – Tanjung Pelepas – Singapore
Additionally, the vessels on the updated New Kiwi service, which ZIM brands as ZIM Asia Oceania (ZAO), will call at the following ports:
Laem Chabang – Singapore – Tanjung Pelapas – Singapore – Jakarta – Brisbane – Sydney – Auckland – Lyttelton – Port Chalmers – Brisbane – Tanjung Pelepas – Singapore – Laem Chabang
Furthermore, ZIM’s existing CAX service will be replaced by ZAX/Panda service. The latest service will be operated by both ZIM and MSC container ships. In particular, the Israeli ocean carrier will deploy three and the Italian/Swiss box line will deploy four vessels on the new service, all with a container capacity of 5,000 TEUs.
Starting in October, the new service will have the following rotation:
Nansha – Hong Kong – Yantian – Brisbane (1st call) – Melbourne – Sydney – Brisbane (2nd call) – Busan – Qingdao – Shanghai – Ningbo – Nansha – Hong Kong – Yantian
ZIM seems to replace its three existing services on the Australia-Asia trade lane with slot charters in two MSC services and a vessel-sharing agreement for a joint service. Shipping consultancy Linerlytica said the Israeli shipping company is paying the price for aggressive expansion during the Covid-fuelled boom.
Linerlytica observed, “ZIM’s woes were exacerbated by its unfavourable trade mix, with the unprofitable Transpacific and Intra-Asia (and Australia) routes accounting for 38% and 28% respectively of ZIM’s total liftings, while it is under-exposed on the Asia-Mediterranean, Atlantic and Latin America that were still profitable during the second quarter of 2023.”
Danny Hoffman, ZIM’s executive vice president in Intra Asia, commented, “Our current Oceania services network will be restructured, in cooperation with MSC, to enhance reliability and strengthen our customer offerings. We are embarking on an exciting new phase in our Australia Service, elevating the level of services provided.”
Antonis Karamalegkos Martina Li
Managing Editor Asia Correspondent
