MSC, Maersk announce plans to ‘optimize’ Asia-Europe services

The ocean carriers will decrease the size of the ships on their Condor/AE 9 service from 9,500 TEUs to 6,500 TEUs on average.    Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. plan to “optimize” their Asia-Europe services.
   “The changes, which will be implemented progressively over the coming months will include: port combinations, vessel rotations and capacity deployment,” MSC said in a statement.
   Interestingly, as the trade has been flooded with large new ships in recent years, average capacity of vessels deployed on the Asia-Europe Condor/AE9 service will be reduced from 9,500 TEUs to 6,500 TEUs.
   MSC, which cooperates extensively with 2M Alliance partner Maersk on the major east-west trades, said, “The network changes apply equally to both 2M VSA partners and we anticipate the changes to be fully effective by the middle of Quarter 3 2015.”
   MSC also reported on the reliability of its Asia-Europe services, saying its figures show the “Asia–North Europe trade was reported to be performing at 92.1 percent reliability.”
   Maersk said a network review is allowing it to “improve the allocation of capacity on the Asia to Europe services.”
   “Adjustments to the network will provide us with a more seasonal network, which will allow us to adjust capacity to demand without impacting the product and reliability we offer to customers,” the carrier added.