SAECS CONSORTIUM ADDS SECOND EUROPE/SOUTH AFRICA LOOP

SAECS CONSORTIUM ADDS SECOND EUROPE/SOUTH AFRICA LOOP    The Southern Africa Europe Container Service consortium of Safmarine, Maersk Sealand, Deutsche Afrika-Linien, P&O Nedlloyd and its sister company Ellerman Harrison Container Line will commence a second weekly service next month.
   The new service will call at East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Algeciras, Portbury, Sheerness, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Tilbury and at ports of the    the Canary Islands. The service will employ six ships of 1,100-TEU capacity.
   The weekly service will commence on Oct. 12 southbound and on Nov. 1 northbound.
   The SAECS consortium said that the service is aimed at European and South African motor car manufacturers and at South African perishable fruit exporters, who need a mid-week sailing.
   The existing weekly of the SAECS consortium will be revised by merging several import and export calls in Europe and by reducing its fleet from seven to six ships. The “Safmarine Hedelberg,” a 2,450-TEU containership, will leave the main SAECS service and will be chartered out.