Maersk alters FEW3, CMA CGM joins

   The ocean carrier Maersk Line has speeded up its weekly Asia-to-West Africa FEW3 service, decreasing roundtrip voyage time from 84 days to 70 days, and changed the rotation. CMA CGM has joined the service, providing one of the total 10-ship fleet. 
   The FEW3 has dropped calls in Qingdao, Ningbo, and Shanghai, which were initially added to the service back in May (reported by American Shipper May 18), in favor of new calls at Yantian and Port Kelang, leaving a revised rotation of Yantian, Nansha, Tanjung Pelepas, Port Kelang, Cape Town, Pointe Noire, Tema, Cape Town, and Yantian.
   Transit times westbound from West Africa to Asia have improved by about seven days, now taking 21 days from Cape Town, South Africa to Nansha, China. Eastbound transit times, however, remain roughly the same, still taking 16 days from Maersk’s mega-regional hub in Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia to Cape Town, though vessels will no longer slow steam one week between Pointe Noire, Congo and Tema, Ghana. 
   French carrier CMA CGM joins the FEW 3 loop as a vessel operator with the July 25 sailing of the Ville d’Orion from Yantian. 
   These changes come shortly after Maersk’s decision to increase capacity on the FEW3 by almost 24 percent, and slow both of its other weekly Asia-to-West Africa services, the FEW1 and FEW2, by one week each (reported by American Shipper June 14 and July 6). 
   The FEW3 service is now operated with 10 vessels averaging 4,209 TEUs, eight from Maersk, one from its subsidiary Safmarine, and one from CMA CGM.
   Maersk and CMA CGM now cooperate closely, with joint services in many trades, but this is the first cooperation in a direct service between Asia and West Africa, a trade regarded by Maersk as one of its most important to defend against competition.  – ComPair Data, Ben Meyer