THE Trans-Tasman service operated by COSCO Shipping Lines and OOCL, known respectively as ANE and ANS, is being upgraded to weekly frequency, effective next month, according to Australia's Daily Cargo News.

The 1,841 TEU ESL Winner, transferred from COSCO's CAP service, joins ANE in Melbourne this week while the 1,023-TEU newbuilding Pride C arrives on December 1.

The ANE service was launched by COSCO in May 2023 on a fortnightly rotation of Auckland, Melbourne, Bell Bay, Port Botany using the 1,118 TEU-Contship Yen, with Tauranga added when the OOCL-supplied, 990 TEU Contship Quo was added.

However, thanks to weather and congestion the two had trouble maintaining fortnightly frequency, which drifted out to around 17 days, and in October this year the end-of-charter Contship Quo was handed back to owners and quickly on-sold. This briefly left only Contship Yen to maintain the service.

The upgraded service will rotate Melbourne (Thursday), Bell Bay (Sunday), Port Botany (Wednesday), Auckland (Tuesday), Tauranga (Thursday) and returning Melbourne (Thursday).

The additional Bell Bay calls will put competitive pressure on the only other international service calling Tasmania, MSC's Noumea Shuttle.

For both carriers the principal role of the Bell Bay call is to feed cargo to/from their mainline services.

Although there is industry speculation ZIM/GSL might join ANE/ANS as a slot-charterer when their current short-term deal with ANL on the TranzTas and ANZ Shuttle loops expires, a OOCL spokesman told DCN "there is no known slot charter arrangement with another carrier being considered".

Shipper sources said the additional capacity was "hardly needed" on the Tasman and was certain to lead to "rates tumbling again". However, the transit times on key legs, Sydney/Auckland and Tauranga/Melbourne "are appealing".