There are clear signs of a strong pick-up in cargo volumes moving on the North East Asia/China tradelane as a raft of freight rate rises, peak season surcharges and new service strings are launched.

Over the past week, the AAUS group comprising APL, Hamburg Sud, Hapag-Lloyd and Hyundai Merchant Marine, in conjunction with Maersk Line, have announced that a peak season string will be started in early July. It is scheduled to last for 20 weeks but will be reviewed by the operators, based on on-going trading conditions.

According to the AAUS members, the new string on which Maersk will buy space will be maintained with five vessels with an average effective loading capacity of 2,400TEU. Hamburg Sud will provide two ships and APL, Hapag-Lloyd and Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) one vessel each.

The new weekly link will focus on China and offer direct calls at Shanghai (Waigaoqiao), Yantian, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and back to Shanghai.

It will complement the two group's existing services, which comprise a northern loop operated jointly by Maersk and MSC, and a southern loop run by the AAUS alliance but where Evergreen contributes a ship.

While the northern string is maintained with 6 x 4,300/4,600TEU ships calling at Yokohama, Osaka, Busan, Qingdao, Shanghai (Yangshan), Ningbo, Sydney, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and back to Yokohama, the southern loop uses 5 x 3,500TEU-class ships on an itinerary featuring calls at Kaohsiung, Chiwan, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and return to Kaohsiung.

The carriers' respective services out of South East Asia to Australia are unaffected by the recent changes.

Meanwhile, the Asia Australia Discussion Agreement (AADA) will introduce a series of general rate restorations (GRR) in July, September and October and a peak season surcharge (PSS), effective from mid-August.

The GRR schedule comprises:

*July 15 - USD250/TEU

*September 15 - USD250/TEU

*October 15 - USD250/TEU

The AADA claimed that the move was needed to compensate its member for their higher operating costs and to ensure reliable levels of service prevailed. The increases will apply to all dry and refrigerated cargo moved from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong to all points in Australia.

The PSS will be charged at USD300/TEU and has been justified by the group on the basis of the additional tonnage and equipment that needs to be phased into the trade during its busy period.

The members of AADA are ANL - part of CMA CGM - China Shipping Container Lines, COSCON, Gold Star Line,Hamburg Sud, Hapag-Lloyd, Hanjin, HMM, K Line, Maersk, MSC, Mitsui OSK Lines, NYK Line and OOCL.