Maersk’s MESA slows, shifts to Cape Town

   The ocean carrier Maersk Line has dropped a port call at Port Elizabeth in favor of a new call at Cape Town and added a seventh vessel to its weekly Middle East/India-South Africa MESA service, increasing round-trip voyage time from 42 days to 49 days.     
   The revised rotation of MESA is Dubai, Karachi, Nhava Sheva, Durban, Cape Town, and Dubai. Maersk subsidiary Safmarine continues to take slots on the service. The Maersk vessels on the service have an average capacity of 2,296 TEUs.
   Transit times northbound to the Middle East from South Africa on MESA have increased by about seven days, now taking 24 days between Durban and Dubai.
   Maersk currently offers direct calls at Cape Town on five other services: its soon-to-be suspended Middle East to Algeciras, West Africa and South Africa “round-Africa” MEW1 service; its Asia-South Africa Safari 1 service; its North Europe-South Africa SAECS service, operated jointly with Safmarine, MOL and DAL; its joint Algeciras-South Africa 225 service with Safmarine; and its joint U.S. East Coast-South Africa AMEX service with Mediterranean Shipping Co.. — ComPair Data, Ben Meyer