Maersk resumes full-speed on FEW2

   After a one-month slow-down, ocean carrier Maersk Line has resumed an 11-week roundtrip voyage time on its FEW2 service between Asia and West Africa.
   American Shipper reported Feb 28 that the loop had slowed to 12 weeks, with transit times eastbound to Southeast Asia, China and South Korea on the FEW2 increasing by about seven days, taking 25 days between Walvis Bay, Namibia and Maersk’s mega-regional hub in Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia.
   The rotation of the FEW2 remains Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Tanjung Pelepas, Walvis Bay, Apapa, Tema, Walvis Bay, Tanjung Pelepas, Xiamen, Fuqing, and Busan. The service currently operates with nine vessels from Maersk and two from subsidiary Safmarine, with an average capacity of 4,497 TEUs.
   The FEW2 is one of three Maersk and Safmarine services that connects Asia directly with West Africa. The others are its FEW1, which was recently converted to a West Africa feeder based on the carrier’s Southeast Asian hubs at Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas (reported by American Shipper Mar 20) and the FEW3, which calls at Pointe Noire, Onne, and Lagos to and from Southeast Asia exclusively. — ComPair Data, Ben Meyer