Maersk to cut Asia/Europe capacity as fuel costs bite

Maersk to cut Asia/Europe capacity as fuel costs bite Maersk Line said today it will remove 2,000 FEUs from its Asia/Europe network capacity as it seeks to improve cost efficiency at a time when fuel costs are soaring.
   From early July, the Danish carrier will make “minor” adjustments to four of its services in the trade:
   ' AE5 will be suspended as of July 5 with the AE8 taking over coverage of Kaohsiung in Taiwan.
   ' AE8 will have a revised port rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Valencia, Dunkirk, Southampton, Gothenburg, Aarhus, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam and back to the Far East.
   ' AE7 eastbound sailings from Ella Maersk departing Rotterdam on July 8 will be slowed. Maersk said that by adding time to the schedule it can include port calls in Tangiers in Morocco and Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia to provide the following port rotation: Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Algeciras, Tangier, Tanjung Pelepas, and Yantian (China). The westbound AE7 rotation will be left unchanged.
   ' AE2 will change its rotation in North China and Korea as follows: Busan, Dalian, Xingang, Qingdao, Kwangyang, Shanghai, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Felixstowe, and Salalah.
   “Given that our AE strings will continue to serve the same corridors as today, our customers will not experience any major changes,” Maersk said in a statement.