Maersk Line ending U.S. East Coast/Brazil loop

Maersk Line ending U.S. East Coast/Brazil loop Maersk Line will soon withdraw about 130,000 TEUs in annual one-way capacity from the U.S. East Coast/East Coast South America trade by ending its weekly NASA service, and instead taking space on a service operated by Hamburg Sud.
   The Danish mega-carrier said the change was 'in response to changing customer requirements in the trade.'
   The NASA service uses five ships of about 2,500 TEUs and calls New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Rio Grande, Sao Francisco do Sul, Santos, Suape and New York.
   APL and MOL take slots on the service, which will end southbound on March 26 when the “Maersk Newark” is scheduled to call Charleston. The last northbound voyage will be made by the same vessel at Santos on April 14.
   Hamburg Sud’s service uses six 3,740-TEU ships calling New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, Jacksonville, Port Everglades, Puerto Cabello, Suape, Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio Grande, Santos, Pecem and New York.
   Maersk will join the service on April 13 with it first northbound departure made by the “Cap San Antonio” from Buenos Aires. Maersk’s first southbound departure will be the “Cap San Marco” sailing from New York on April 16.
   Other carriers that take space on the Hamburg Sud service are its Brazilian subsidiary Alianca, APL, Chilean line Compania Sud Americana de Vapores, Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp., and Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd.