2M launches new transatlantic service

Additional alliance loop will offer more consistent service, according to 2M member Maersk Line.    Ocean carriers Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. will add another service between North Europe and the United States to their 2M East-West Network later this month.
   Timothy Simpson, a Maersk spokesman, said the new loop will allow Maersk and MSC to offer customers a “better consistency of the products.”
   Details like the number and size of ships in the new service are still being finalized, but the new string will have rotation of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, New York, Savannah, New York, and back to Antwerp, according to a statement from Maersk.
   Maersk said it will remove ports from some of its existing transatlantic services, leaving them with the following rotations:

• TA 1 (a U.S. Flag service): Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Norfolk, Charleston, Miami, Houston, Norfolk, and Antwerp.
• TA 2: Bremerhaven, Felixstowe, Antwerp, Le Havre, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, New York, and Bremerhaven.
• TA 3: Antwerp, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Le Havre, Charleston, Freeport, Veracruz, Altamira, New Orleans, Mobile, Freeport, Charleston, and Antwerp.

   According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the 2M carriers currently operate the TA1 with five vessels with an average capacity of 4,677 TEUs, the TA2 with four 6,056-TEU average ships, and the TA3 with seven vessels with an average capacity of 7,169 TEUs.
   The 2M also has another transatlantic string that connects the Canadian ports of Montreal and Halifax with Antwerp, Rotterdam and Bremerhaven.