Maersk service goes around Cape both ways

Maersk service goes around Cape both ways Maersk Line said Wednesday it is restructuring its Samba service between the Middle East and the East Coast of South America by sailing around the tip of Africa both ways and removing a Mediterranean call on the westbound leg.
      The service previously transited the Suez Canal westbound from the Middle East, making a Mediterranean stop at the Port of Algeciras in Spain and in Dakar before continuing on to South America. Now the westbound leg will sail around the Cape of Good Hope, dropping Algeciras and Dakar and adding a stop in Walvis Bay, Namibia.
      Transshipment between the Far East and Brazil will now be handled at Jebel Ali or Salalah instead of Algeciras, with a new rotation of Vitoria, Itajai, Paranagua, Rio Grande, Santos, Salalah, Jebel Ali, Walvis Bay and Vitoria. Maersk added a vessel to the service in October, but now has reduced the loop to eight ships of 2,800 TEUs.
      The Samba would be the second service known to be sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in both directions after American Shipper reported Wednesday that an MSC Asia/Europe service was doing so.
   “Besides continuing to efficiently cater for the growing East Coast South America/Middle East-India-East Africa trades via Salalah, avoiding Suez, Maersk will now be able, should it so wish, to rearrange its West Coast North America/Asia volumes to South Africa and South America East Coast via Salalah in the other direction,”    said Francis Phillips of ComPair Data. “Maersk has already announced a new joint venture with CMA CGM to run large ships through Suez directly between the West Coast of North America, Asia, the Mediterranean and U.S. East Coast, starting in May. In that context Samba could now be viewed as a potential Salalah-based ‘feeder’ loop, connecting in South Africa and the South America East Coast to the new Maersk/CMA CGM northern hemisphere network, which is evolving.”