Maersk adjusts for Asia-Europe winter disruptions

   Maersk Line said this week it will omit some port calls on its Asia-Europe network to account for potential port closures during the winter season.
   The omitted calls, which will occur from mid-November through the end of the year, will be covered by other calls at the same ports on different Maersk services, the line said.
   The omissions are:

• Nov. 17 and 24 sailings of the AE7 service will omit Gothenburg, with the call covered by the Nov. 16 and Nov. 23 sailings of the AE10 service.
• Nov. 21 sailing of the AE2 will omit Hamburg, with the call covered by the Nov. 22 sailing of the AE6.
• Nov. 22 sailing of the AE6 will omit Felixstowe, to be covered by the Nov. 27 sailing of the AE1.
• Nov. 28 sailing of the AE2 will omit Hamburg and Le Havre, with Hamburg covered by the Nov. 29 sailing of the AE6 and Le Havre covered by the Dec. 5 sailing of the AE2.
• The eastbound leg of the Dec. 26 sailing of the AE10 will omit Bremerhaven, with the connection from Bremerhaven to Singapore covered by the Dec. 30 sailing of the AE2 and the Bremerhaven to Shanghai and Bremerhaven to Hong Kong connections covered by the Dec. 29 sailing of the AE6.

   “In connection with the port closures in North Europe during the upcoming Christmas/New Year period, we have endeavored to minimize the impact to our customers by securing alternate berthing windows wherever possible,” the line said. “A number of port calls will nonetheless be affected by omissions, for which we will be shifting volumes to other services in our network that cover similar geographies.” – Eric Johnson