Evergreen and Zim sign slot exchange agreement on the Far East-Mediterranean trades

Evergreen has signed a slot exchange agreement with Zim Israel Navigation Co, effective end of August 2002. The agreement will see Evergreen enhance significantly its Mediterranean network and increase service frequency on the important Far East-Mediterranean trade lane. In particular, it will provide Evergreen with direct service links between Asia and Israel, Greece and Slovenia for the first time.

Evergreen will achieve this by taking slots on Zim’s weekly AMP service.

On the westbound leg, the agreement covers the ports of Pusan (Korea), Shanghai (China), Shekou (China), Hong Kong, Singapore and Colombo (Sri Lanka) plus Haifa (Israel), Koper (Slovenia), Venice (Italy), Trieste (Italy) and Piraeus (Greece). The first sailing under this agreement will be from Pusan on 28 August.

The eastbound service provides links between Koper, Venice, Trieste, Piraeus and Haifa and Colombo, Singapore, Shekou, Hong Kong, Yantian (China), Shanghai and Pusan. The first eastbound AMP sailing to operate under the new agreement will depart Koper on 31 August.

In return, Evergreen will provide Zim with an identical number of slots on its FEM service linking Asia and the Mediterranean. Westbound, Zim will benefit from Evergreen’s comprehensive weekly service gaining slots on sailings between Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Hong Kong, and Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Taranto (Italy), Genoa (Italy), Fos (France), Barcelona (Spain), Valencia (Spain) and Trieste (Italy). The first sailing under the slot exchange agreement will be Evergreen’s 30 August 2002 westbound FEM sailing from Kaohsiung.

Eastbound, Evergreen will provide slots linking Taranto, Genoa, Fos, Barcelona and Valencia to Colombo, Kaohsiung and Hong Kong. The first eastbound sailing is scheduled for 1 September out of Taranto.

Commenting on this latest development, an Evergreen spokesman stated:

“Evergreen is a big believer in the benefits of slot-sharing arrangements and joint services. We expect both Evergreen and Zim to see significantly improved service coverage and more efficiently utilised capacity on the crucial Far East-Mediterranean trade route as a result of this slot exchange agreement. Moreover, we expect the agreement with Zim to further positively impact on Evergreen’s performance in terms of operating costs."