Carriers add reefers to SAECS loop

Carriers add reefers to SAECS loop    Liner carriers that operate the South Africa Europe Container Service said last week that they will add reefer capacity to the service in February to cater for an anticipated demand increase between South Africa and Europe.
   The service, operated by Maersk Line and its subsidiary Safmarine, along with MOL and Deutsche Afrika-Linien (DAL), connects Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth with Rotterdam, Tilbury and Bremerhaven. But beginning Feb. 15, the lines will add a reefer-only loop, the Reefer Express (REX), between Cape Town, Rotterdam and Tilbury. The reefer-only service will continue through August, with transit times for the REX comparable to the SAECS core service, the lines said.
   'The REX service will be flexed in terms of frequency and ports of call according to the seasonal demands of the perishable/refrigerated products market and will supplement the capacity provided by the main weekly SAECS core service,' the carriers said in a statement.
   The SAECS core service provides 1,073 TEUs of weekly reefer capacity, according to American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data. The core service is operated with seven vessels (three from Safmarine, two from MOL and one each from Maersk and DAL), with an average capacity of 4,527 TEUs.
   The REX service will commence with a sailing by a DAL vessel, the lines said, but no information on the size of the vessels was provided, nor which lines would provide other vessels to the supplementary service.