LYKES AND SAFBANK SPLIT SERVICES IN U.S./SOUTH AFRICA TRADE

LYKES AND SAFBANK SPLIT SERVICES IN U.S./SOUTH AFRICA TRADE    Lykes Lines is launching a fortnightly U.S./West Africa/ South Africa multipurpose service following the announcement that Lykes and SafBank are ending their cooperation agreement in the U.S./Africa trades.
   Effective March 2, Lykes will be operating its own service connecting the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts, Mexico, West Africa, South Africa and Brazil. The port rotation is Cape Town and Durban, South Africa; Salvador, Brazil; Veracruz, Mexico; Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah and Baltimore, U.S.; Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; and Cape Town again.
   The new, twice monthly service will employ four chartered ships with a capacity of 930 TEUs and 20,870 cubic meters.
   Lykes will no longer have space on the SafBank multipurpose service nor on the SafBank/Mediterranean Shipping Co./Maersk Sealand weekly container service between the U.S. and South Africa.
   SafBank said that it will continue to operate its fortnightly
multipurpose service without Lykes.