ZIM Shipping and 2M (Maersk and MSC) have signed a route-sharing arrangement on Asia-to-U.S. East Coast (USEC) routes that will see the number of services (strings) fall to five from seven but will also add new ports of call. The rationalization follows a similar phenomenon on Asia-to-U.S. West Coast lanes by all three major alliances. Container-rates on Asia-USEC lanes have seen similar progress to the global average in declining 1% in 2Q on a year earlier. The addition of a Thailand service follows a rebound in volumes with 15% growth in 2Q vs. an 18% decline in the prior three quar...