Maersk stops South Africa/Oceania dry shipments

Maersk stops South Africa/Oceania dry shipments    Maersk Line said it has stopped moving loaded dry containers from southern Africa to a host of South Pacific locations 'due to an urgent need to position dry equipment.'
   The company in a customer announcement this week said the policy is effective immediately for shipments to American Samoa, Australia, Fiji Islands, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Vanuatu. The line added that reefer containers would not be affected.
   The container line also said it is changing the rotation of its Samba service between Europe and the East Coast of South America.
   Calls at Tangier, Dakar and Vitoria will be dropped, while a call will be added at Tilbury and a double call will be made at Santos. The new rotation, as of Aug. 18, will be Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Tilbury, Algeciras, Santos, Paranagua, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santos, Pecem and Rotterdam. According to American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data, the service is operated with seven vessels (five from Maersk and two from subsidiary Safmarine) with an average capacity of 3,009 TEUs.
   Finally, Maersk said it has already added calls to its intra-Mediterranean Adriatic-Levant service. The service now calls Trieste and Port Said, while making a second call at Limassol. The new rotation is Koper, Trieste, Ravenna, Piraeus, Limassol, Ashdod, Port Said, Alexandria, Limassol and Koper.