Ocean Alliance Connects Zeebrugge with Asian Ports

APM Terminals The Belgian port of Zeebrugge will now be linked with the Asian ports of Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, and Yantian, China as well as Busan, Korea, through the weekly Ocean Alliance NEU4 service. Operated by French-based shipping major CMA CGM, the service was launched with the first call of the 13,380 TEU capacity APL Changi on May 16. NEU4 will call the 1.3 million annual throughput capacity APM Terminals Zeebrugge facility, which features a depth of 17 meters and seven STS cranes. The facility can accommodate vessels of up to 20,000 capacity. The NEU4 service, which will deploy 12 vessels of up to 17,859 TEU capacity, is one of six Asia/North Europe services offered by the Ocean Alliance, which began operations on April 1 with CMA CGM, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen Line and Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) as members. The Ocean Alliance comprises a total of 323 ships with an estimated total carrying capacity of over 3 million TEUs, and will run for the next ten years.