MOL takes over P&O Nedlloyd’s Europe/South Africa operations

MOL takes over P&O Nedlloyd’s Europe/South Africa operations    Japanese ocean carrier Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. Tuesday completed its acquisition of P&O Nedlloyd’s operations in the Europe/South Africa trade. The acquisition marks MOL’s entry into the market.
   The European Commission made it a condition of A.P. Moller-Maersk’s takeover of P&O Nedlloyd that the new operation sell off P&O Nedlloyd’s Europe/South Africa liner interests.
   No financial details were disclosed when the deal was first announced November.
   MOL now has rights to operate three former P&O Nedlloyd ships under a cooperative agreement with Maersk Line, Safmarine, and Deutsche Afrika Line, collectively known as the South Africa Europe Container Service (SAECS) members.
   “We are very pleased to be able to offer this new service to customers and are sure it will enhance our competitive position in the African continent,” said Tetsuya Minato, managing director at MOL (Europe).
   The SAECS operate two separate loops, one with a weekly frequency and the other sailing every fortnight.
   The weekly Loop 1 service is operated by six ships of about 5,000 TEUs and calls: Rotterdam, Tilbury, Bremerhaven, Las Palmas, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Cape town, Las Palmas, and back to Rotterdam.
   MOL will make its first sailing on Loop 1 when the 4,922-TEU vessel “MOL Cullinan,” formerly known as “P&O Nedlloyd Heemskerck,” departs Port Elizabeth Feb. 5.
   Loop 2 deploys four vessels of about 1,700 TEUs and has a port rotation of: Bristol, Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Lisbon, East London, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Lisbon, and back to Bristol.
   MOL’s involvement on the fortnightly Loop 2 will commence when the vessel “Safmarine Agulhas” departs Bristol Feb. 4.
   The two other ships taken over by MOL from P&O Nedlloyd are the 4,922-TEU “MOL Caledon” and the 1,728-TEU “MOL Springbok”, previously known as “P&O Nedlloyd Livingstone” and “P&O Nedlloyd Portbury,” respectively.
   MOL also operates two services between Africa and Asia, as well as an all-water container service linking Africa with Asia and Latin America. The Tokyo-based company now has branch offices in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, East London, Port Elizabeth in South Africa and Lagos, Abidjan and Tema in West Africa.