Starting in January 2006 Hamburg Süd will restructure its two services from Asia to the Pacific Coasts of South America and North America to improve service coverage and transit times to principle markets. As a consequence the China Asia South America Service (CASA) will no longer call in Vancouver and Long Beach (SB and NB) but proceed from Asia directly to Manzanillo, Mexico and ports on the South American West Coast. This revised CASA service will complement the already existing weekly service between Asia and key ports in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile.

With two sailings per week, Hamburg Süd will offer the most comprehensive port coverage in both directions, southbound and northbound - between all main ports in Asia, Mexico and South America West Coast. Both strings will be operating on a clockwise / resp. counter clockwise rotation in Asia. By this the new service configuration will guarantee the fastest transit times from both North and South Asia to Mexico and the West Coast South America.

Northbound, the rotation is specifically designed to provide the fastest transit times from Chile to the reefer markets in Japan and China. Both slings will be operated with nine vessels each and a round voyage time of 63 days.

Complementing this service and in order to upgrade to weekly from the present fortnightly coverage, Hamburg Süd will launch a new service between Vancouver, Seattle, Oakland, Long Beach and Ensenada to Manzanillo, Mexico where it will connect with the two weekly services mentioned above. The service will be operated on a weekly basis with three 1,100 TEU container vessels.

The port rotation of Sling 1 will be: Yokohama - Pusan - Shanghai -Ningbo - Yantian - Hong Kong - Manzanillo - Guayaquil - Paita* -Callao - Iquique - Mejillones* - Valparaiso - Lirquen - Manzanillo -Yokohama. *(Paita / Mejillones alternating).

The port rotation of Sling 2 will be: Keelung - Hong Kong -Shanghai - Pusan - Manzanillo - Buenaventura - Callao -- Mejillones - San Antonio - Keelung.