March 29, 2007 - The CKYH Alli ance (COSCON, "K" Line, Yang Ming, and Hanjin Shipping) will upgrade AWE-1 (Hanjin Loop), AWE-4 ("K" Line Loop) and AWE-5 (CKYH Joint Loop) among 5 CKYH AWE loops by revising its routes to provide regionally differentiated service, such as North Loop, Central Loop and South Loop starting from May 2007.
CKYH will join hands to run a total of three South / Central / North Express Services by deploying ten Panamax ships of 4000 TEU class from "K" Line and fourteen 4000 TEU ships from Hanjin.
New AWE South Loop : Chiwan – Yantian – Hong Kong – New York – Norfolk – Savannah – Chiwan
New AWE Central Loop : Xiamen – Hong Kong – Yantian – Ningbo – Shanghai – Busan – Savannah – Norfolk – Charleston – Xiamen
New AWE North Loop : Qingdao – Ningbo – Shanghai – Busan – New York – Wilmington – Savannah – Busan – Qingdao
AWE2 Loop : Qingdao – Shanghai – Yantian – Hong Kong – Charleston – New York – B oston – Qingdao
AWE3 Loop : Hong Kong – Yantian – Kaohsiung – B usan – Savannah – Wilmington – New York – Kaohsiung – Hong Kong
Through this restructuring, CKYH Alliance will be able to provide customers with direct calls to Xiamen and express service that links South / North China to East Coast US. Transit time from Hong Kong to New York will be 22 days and 23 days from Shanghai to New York . With this more reliable schedule, new AWE service will then compare favorably with MLB service in terms of transit time.
The launch of direct link from Qingdao / Ningbo / Shanghai to Wilmington offers service variation as well as shorter transit time and schedule reliability.