HANJIN, SINOTRANS TO UPGRADE ASIA/EUROPE SERVICE

HANJIN, SINOTRANS TO UPGRADE ASIA/EUROPE SERVICE    Hanjin Shipping will phase in two new 4,350-TEU ships onto its joint weekly China Europe Express service with Sinotrans, starting in late December.
   The new ships, “Hanjin Praha” and “Hanjin Phoenix,” start a retonnaging program for the CEX service, which will see five Hanjin-4,350 TEU ships replace six approximately 2,600-TEU ships by June 2002.
   The five new ships will join three Sinotrans chartered vessels of 4,038 TEUs. Senator Lines, as part of the United Alliance, and “K” Line and United Arab Shipping Co. also have space on the CEX service.
   The new ships will add nearly 60,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity in the Asia/Europe trade.
   In a separate development, a spokesman for Hanjin said it intends to replace Hong Kong with Chiwan as a direct call on the service once all the new ships are operational, although a westbound call at the Chinese port might be added before the end of this year.