Maersk, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd and ZIM Reshape Asia–ECSA Services

For December cargo to Brazil and the River Plate, the exposure sits below the booking. The service code on a booking confirmation is one carrier’s name for a loop that may be sold under several names, and several of these loops change port calls or partners within the same fortnight. A container can keep its booking number while the vessel, voyage or transshipment plan behind it changes.

What Each Carrier Has Announced

The table covers the five loops directly involved, with westbound calls as each carrier published them.

Service name (carrier)	Operated or sold by	Status	Asia calls	South America calls
ASAS2 (Maersk) / SEAS3 (CMA CGM)	Maersk and CMA CGM	Ends. Last voyage 650W departs Shanghai 8 Dec 2026	Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shekou, Singapore	Santos, Itajaí
SEAS 2 (CMA CGM)	CMA CGM	Revised rotation from 14 Dec 2026, CMA CGM COBALT from Tianjin Xingang	Tianjin Xingang, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore	Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Paranaguá, Itapoá, Itajaí
SEAS A (CMA CGM) / TLA3 (OOCL) / ESA3 (COSCO)	Marketed under carrier-specific service names	From 17 Dec 2026, CMA CGM XENON from Ningbo	Ningbo, Shanghai, Shekou, Singapore	Santos, Navegantes, Montevideo, Buenos Aires. Coega on the return leg, subject to confirmation
AS3 (Hapag-Lloyd) / ZFS (ZIM)	Hapag-Lloyd and ZIM, vessel sharing agreement	Running since mid-September 2026	Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Yantian	Rio Grande, Paranaguá, Itajaí, Santos, Rio de Janeiro. River Plate via Rio Grande
ASAS (Maersk)	Maersk, described by Maersk as fully Maersk-operated	Continues	Not restated in Maersk’s December advisory	Not restated in Maersk’s December advisory

Westbound calls as published by carriers, September to October 2026. ASAS2/SEAS3 calls from Maersk’s most recent published rotation. Confirm against current schedules before booking.

One Loop Can Carry Several Service Names

CMA CGM’s revised SEAS A, OOCL’s TLA3 and COSCO’s ESA3 publish the same core westbound rotation: Ningbo, Shanghai, Shekou and Singapore, then Santos, Navegantes, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. The services begin in mid-December and represent the same underlying service string marketed under carrier-specific names.

The departing ASAS2 worked the same way, as Maersk’s name for a loop CMA CGM sold as SEAS3. AS3 and ZFS are Hapag-Lloyd’s and ZIM’s names for their shared loop.

This matters most when something goes wrong. An advisory about a blank sailing, an omitted call or a revised rotation can be issued under a partner’s service name, which a team watching only its own carrier’s code can miss. The stable reference across carriers is the container number. What needs monitoring against it is the current vessel and voyage assignment, connection status and shipment events.

Where Direct Calls Turn Into Connections

The AS3/ZFS loop shows how far a rotation can move between announcement and first sailing. When ZIM first announced ZFS, it was an independent service calling directly at Navegantes, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. The loop that launched in September as a Hapag-Lloyd and ZIM vessel sharing service calls Rio Grande, Paranaguá, Itajaí, Santos and Rio de Janeiro instead, and Hapag-Lloyd describes its River Plate coverage as running via Rio Grande. A Buenos Aires shipment planned against the original announcement therefore gained a transshipment leg that was not part of the initial published rotation.

December raises the same question at specific ports:

Shekou loses its ASAS2 call. SEAS 2 and SEAS A/TLA3/ESA3 both load there.
Itajaí loses its ASAS2 call. SEAS 2 and AS3/ZFS both discharge there.
Navegantes appears on SEAS A/TLA3/ESA3 and not on the new SEAS 2 rotation.
Montevideo and Buenos Aires are direct calls on SEAS A/TLA3/ESA3 and connections via Rio Grande on AS3/ZFS.

Each relay adds another vessel movement and a connection window at the hub. If that connection changes or is missed, the downstream ETA can move even while the original booking remains active. For operations teams, the relevant dates are therefore the container’s latest vessel assignment, connection status and revised destination ETA rather than the booking-stage schedule alone.

If your team is rechecking December Asia–South America bookings vessel by vessel across carrier sites, walk through how ops teams track container-level vessel changes and revised ETAs across carriers.

The 8 to 17 December Handover

The final ASAS2 voyage, 650W, departs Shanghai on 8 December. SEAS 2 begins its revised rotation from Tianjin Xingang on 14 December with the CMA CGM COBALT, and SEAS A from Ningbo on 17 December with the CMA CGM XENON. Cargo that misses voyage 650W, or sits on a later ASAS2 booking, will need a new vessel or routing assignment.

Maersk says customers can keep booking without interruption through ASAS, which it describes as fully Maersk-operated. The advisory does not say how ASAS2’s Shekou and Itajaí calls will be covered, so Maersk shippers using those ports should confirm the routing before December cut-offs.

One analyst expects capacity to tighten as the services are reshuffled. Solvens Advisory, in analysis published by The Loadstar, estimates that nominal weekly capacity from Asia could fall by about 4% under its expected post-restructuring configuration. The estimate depends partly on assumptions about how capacity is redeployed and should therefore be treated as an analyst scenario rather than a confirmed carrier figure. The same analysis notes that Maersk will operate a single loop without an in-house alternative if a sailing is blanked.

What to Check on December Bookings

Open bookings that name ASAS2 or SEAS3 for any departure after voyage 650W, and the vessel and voyage each one is now assigned to
Whether each discharge port is a direct call on the new rotation or a connection, especially Itajaí, Navegantes and the River Plate
The partner service names for your loop, so advisories issued under those names reach your team
The latest destination ETA after the container is loaded, compared with the booking-stage schedule
Free-time and inland transport plans for shipments whose discharge port, connection or call order changes