The container shipping consortium THE Alliance (Hapag Lloyd, K-Line, MOL, NYK Line and Yang Ming) has announced that all of its mainline UK calls on Asia-Europe and Transatlantic services will be handled by DP World’s terminals at London Gateway and Southampton, reports DP World.

The Asia-Europe FE1, FE2 and FE4 services will call at DP World Southampton, whereas FE3 and FE5 at DP World London Gateway, being the first regular Asia-Europe services handled at the facility.

The Transatlantic AL3, AL4 and AL5 services will call at DP World Southampton and AL1, AL2 at DP World London Gateway.

The confirmation from THE Alliance that it will bring its new services to London Gateway has triggered a separate announcement by DP World that it will formally open its third berth for full operations at the end of March, providing additional capacity for shipping lines and cargo owners. The port is also integrated with DP World London Gateway Logistics Park, which provides nearly 1 mln sq.m. of supply chain and distribution space for retailers and logistics firms, such as Lidl and UPS, who are already on site.

DP World Southampton container terminal will now be the only port to handle vessels operated by all three shipping alliances: The Alliance, Ocean Alliance and 2M.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, CEO and Chairman, DP World, said: “We are proud that ‘THE Alliance’ has chosen to make all of its UK calls at DP World terminals from April and we strongly believe that DP World in the UK is best placed to offer the consortium and its customers the very best service. DP World is the only operator in the UK to provide two deep-water facilities. Both terminals can provide operational back up to each other and reduce the risk of delays to the supply chain – no other operator in the UK can do this.”

THE Alliance is expected to deploy 21,000 TEU vessels on its services when MOL’s new builds come into service this year which will see DP World in the UK handle the largest ships in the world.