Hamburg-Sud sticks to north/south.

Explores cooperation with Hapag-Lloyd, but avoids riskier east/west routes.

Hamburg-Sud, the privately-owned German shipping group, will stick to the north/south liner trades despite increased competition from east/west and global carriers.

Now operating under the names Hamburg-Sud, Columbus Line and Deutsche Nah Ost Linie, the German group "has invariably remained a north/south specialist in the past 125 years," it said.

And so it will stay.

"Hamburg-Sud will continue to concentrate on its traditional north/south trade routes," the line said in a statement outlining company strategy on the company's 125th anniversary. "It is not the wish of the group to be represented with its own services in the major east/west trades, either now or in the future." Instead, the company said it wishes "to strengthen and continue its collaboration with (carrier) partners."

The …