Shipping lines integrate Oceania service with VSA.

The member lines of the Oceania Vessel Sharing Agreement, Hamburg Sud, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk Line, and ANL-USL will, subject to regulatory approval, restructure their existing services between the West Coast of North America and Australia/New Zealand.

Under the proposed agreement the four lines will jointly offer eight monthly sailings under a three string service concept. ANL-USL will integrate their existing service with the Oceania VSA.

A weekly Pacific Southwest String (PSW-1) will utilize six 2,500 TEU vessels calling at Long Beach, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Tauranga, Suva (3x per month) Honolulu (1x per month), Oakland, and Long Beach.

A fortnightly Pacific Southwest String (PSW-2) will call at Long Beach, Tauranga, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Tauranga (to be confirmed), and Long Beach. This new PSW-2 string will be operated with 3 x 1300 teu vessels.

The Pacific Northwest (PNW) string will sail fortnightly from Seattle, Vancouver, Long Beach to Tauranga, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and return via Auckland, Papeete (Tahiti), Ensenada (Mexico) to Oakland and Seattle. The PNW string will employ four 1,700 TEU vessels.

The departure days of the fortnightly PSW-2 and fortnightly PNW string from Long Beach are timed to provide weekly fixed day departures.

The Oceania VSA will provide 104 sailings in each direction with the most comprehensive port coverage. Start-up of the new service structure is planned for August.<Korea Shipping Gazette>