Maersk extends FEW3 to China

   The ocean carrier Maersk Line has extended its weekly Southeast Asia to South and West Africa service FEW3 beyond Southeast Asia to China and added a 12th vessel, increasing roundtrip voyage time from 77 days to 84 days. 
   Maersk has added calls at Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, and Nansha, China as well as a call at Tema, Ghana, to the service while dropping calls at Port Kelang, Onne, and Lagos, leaving a revised rotation of Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Nansha, Tanjung Pelepas, Cape Town, Pointe Noire, Tema, Cape Town, and Qingdao. 
   Although roundtrip voyage time on the FEW3 has increased by a full week, transit time from Maersk’s mega-regional hub in Tanjung Pelepas to Cape Town, South Africa has actually improved by about seven days, now taking 17 days instead of 24 days. 
   Maersk added the call at Cape Town to the FEW3 last month, also adding an 11th vessel to the service and extending roundtrip voyage time from 70 days to 77 days (reported by American Shipper Apr 27). 
   The service is now operated with 10 Maersk vessels and two from subsidiary Safmarine with an average capacity of 2,766 TEUs. 
   The FEW3 is one of three Maersk and Safmarine services that connects Asia directly with West Africa. The others are its FEW1, a West Africa feeder based on the carrier’s Southeast Asian hubs at Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas and the FEW2, which calls at Walvis Bay, Apapa, and Tema to and from Korea, China, and Tanjung Pelepas. – ComPair Data, Ben Meyer