Maersk adds ship, Japan call to TP7

   The shipping company Maersk Line has added a new Japan call and a 10th vessel to its weekly TP7 service between Asia and East Coast North America.
   The carrier has added a westbound call at Osaka, while increasing the number of vessels deployed on the service from nine to 10 and increasing round voyage time from 63 days to 70 days.
   The TP7 service, which calls at Los Angeles westbound, has a revised rotation of Kaohsiung, Yantian, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Busan, Balboa, Miami, Savannah, Charleston, Miami, Balboa, Los Angeles, Osaka, and Kaohsiung. Its 10 Maersk vessels have an average capacity of 5,192 TEUs.
   According to Maersk Line schedules, the carrier plans to add a second call at Nansha, China to the service in early February.
   The new call at Osaka is Maersk’s only direct connection to the port from either coast of North America and Balboa. In fact, the carrier’s Asia-Oceania Boomerang service, operated jointly with subsidiary Safmarine and Mediterranean Shipping Co., is the only other service offered by Maersk that calls Osaka.
   Most of Maersk’s transpacific loops serving Japan call Yokohama, including the TP3/TP9/Columbus pendulum joint service with CMA CGM and its AC2 and AC3 loops from Balboa.  The TP5 VSA loop to California, which Maersk shares with CMA CGM, MSC and Evergreen, calls at Hakata and Nagoya eastbound and Kobe westbound, in addition to Yokohama in both directions.
   In the intra-Asia context, Maersk subsidiary MCC will now be able to market space on TP7 vessels southbound from Osaka to Kaohsiung. — ComPair Data, Ben Meyer and Francis Phillips