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Shipping firm Evergreen has announced that it is restructuring its transpacific services in order to meet changing market conditions and reduce bunker costs.

In a statement released today, the company said it will launch a new Europe - Asia - West Coast North America pendulum service next month as part of its restructuring program.

The ocean carrier said that the new arrangement will reduce its marine fuel costs, improve service reliability and have a minimal effect on transit times.

Evergreen's Asia United States (AUS) service, which currently sees nine vessels operating a twin-loop service linking California on one loop to Shanghai/Ningbo/ Qingdao and on the other loop to Kaohsiung/Hong Kong and Yantian, will be split in two.

The southern loop will be incorporated into the new pendulum service while the northern loop will be replaced by a new China -South US West Coast (California) - China (CPS) service.

The new US West Coast - Asia - Europe (UAE) service is being created by merging the southern loop with Evergreen Line's China Europe Shuttle (CES) service.

Previously, the CES service employed eight 7024TEU S-type vessels while the AUS service employed nine vessels: two S-types, four 6332TEU E-types and three 5362TEU U-types.

In the reorganisation of these services, an additonal U-type will be drafted in and the UAE service will then be operated by 13 vessels (ten S-types and three E-types) and the CPS service by five vessels (two E-types and three U-types).

Amongst the benefits achieved by this restructuring is the inclusion of Busan as a regular call in the CPS schedule and the ability to offer direct sailings between California and Evergreen's South Asian hub ports of Tanjung Pelepas and Colombo.

The changes are scheduled to take place during mid/late December 2008.