COSCO AND ZIM COOPERATE IN MED/U.S. EAST COAST TRADE

COSCO AND ZIM COOPERATE IN MED/U.S. EAST COAST TRADE    COSCO Container Lines and Zim Israel Navigation Co. Ltd. have announced a slot-exchange agreement between their two services in the Mediterranean/U.S. East Coast trade.
   The agreement will be the first ever cooperation deal between the Chinese and Israeli shipping lines.
   The slot-exchange is due to start mid-June, subject to regulatory approval.
   It will enable COSCO to have slots on Zim’s “ZCS” weekly service between the Mediterranean and the U.S. East Coast. The “ZCS” operation calls at Savannah, New York, Halifax, Barcelona, Haifa, Piraeus, Leghorn, Barcelona, Halifax, New York and Savannah.
   In return, Zim will have space on the new Mediterranean/U.S. East Coast weekly service operated jointly by COSCO, “K” Line and Yangming. This service has a rotation of New York, Norfolk, Charleston, Genoa, Naples, Barcelona, New York, Norfolk and Charleston.
   With the slot-exchange agreement, both COSCO and Zim will be able to provide two sailings a week in the increasingly competitive Mediterranean/U.S. East Coast trade.
   COSCO, “K” Line and Yangming have filed a revised version of their “Mediterranean/U.S. East and Gulf Coast Vessel Sharing Agreement” with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission to authorize COSCO to subcharter space it receives from the other two carriers to Zim.
   COSCO and Zim consider their agreement “as the first step for further expansion of the cooperation between the two companies in other areas of activity,” Zim said.
   The COSCO/Zim agreement in the Mediterranean/U.S. East Coast trade is in addition to the existing slot-exchange cooperation between D’Amico-Italia and Zim in the Mediterranean/U.S. West Coast trade.