Maersk tightens ECUMED, revises Andean 1

   The shipping company Maersk Line has begun the process of swapping out all the current vessels on its WSCA-North Europe Andean 1 service for smaller vessels on its newer WCSA-Med-Black Sea ECUMED loop.
   At the same time the Andean 1 is being slowed with the addition of an eighth vessel, increasing round voyage time to 56 days from 49 days. The move decreases average capacity on Andean 1 from 2,982 TEUs to 2,557 TEUs.
   The rotation of Andean 1, which hubs around Balboa on the Pacific side of Panama, is extensively revised, dropping its northound call at Malaga, Spain, together with Lirquen, and Manzanillo (Panama) northbound. Calls added are Hamburg and Antwerp, plus southbound at Cartagena and Guayaquil and northbound at Santa Marta,
   The revised port rotation of the Andean 1 is Rotterdam, Tilbury, Hamburg, Antwerp, Cartagena, Manzanillo, Balboa, Guyaquil, Callao, San Antonio, Callao, Balboa, Santa Marta, and Rotterdam. The loop benefits from direct service to Santa Marta, from which Mediterreanean Shipping Co. recently withdrew.
   As for ECUMED, Maersk will increase average capacity on this eight-ship service from 2,557 TEUs to 2,874 TEUs, Three of its newly assigned ships were previously idle. The carrier has also dropped a southbound call in Malta in favor of a new outbound call at Malaga, and added a southbound call at Manzanillo.
   The revised port rotation of the ECUMED, which hubs around both Balboa/Manzanillo and Algeciras/Malaga is Guayaquil, Balboa, Manzanillo, Algeciras, Istanbul, Izmit, Novorossiysk, Odessa, Istanbul, Izmit, Malaga, Algeciras, Manzanillo, Balboa, and Guayaquil.
   Maersk has no other services connecting either North Europe or the Mediterranean directly with the West Coast of South America, but the carrier’s North Europe-to-Central America 2,424-TEU CRX service connects regional hub Manzanillo directly with Cork (Ireland),Tilbury Rotterdam, and Bremerhaven. — ComPair Data, Ben Meyer