COSCO is providing the 4,253-TEU Cosco Durban on the North Asia-China-Australia Express, service operated by NYK, MOL, "K" Line and OOCL, named respectively AANA 2/AU 2/ESACO 1/AEA 3.

The Cosco ship will help fill a gap left by the December departure of tonnage provided by Taiwan's Evergreen.

The Cosco Durban has been shifted from the Sino Australia Service (SAS) operated by Cosco and ANL, with RCL, NYK, MOL, "K" Line, OOCL and Maersk taking slots, on which the vessel is to be replaced by the 5,446 TEU Lu He, reported Alphaliner.

The port rotation for the North Asia-China-Australia Express is: Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and back to Yokohama.

The service uses 4,200-5,000 TEU ships and turns in six weeks. So far, two of the six weekly sailings have been skipped.

Following the injection of the Cosco vessel, the gap in sailings will continue, as a sixth ship will still be missing.

The skipped sailing is to be covered by the partners through slots purchased on third party loops.