The shipping company Maersk Line has added a single eastbound-only call at Tangiers to its weekly Asia-Europe loop AE10, operated with its 11 largest vessels (averaging 14,848 TEUs).
The AE10 loop is continuing to call first at nearby Algeciras, in addition to Tangiers.
This new call represents one of only two direct calls to Tangiers offered by Maersk since the carrier phased out all its direct calls there in early December. The carrier’s Asia-Europe service AE9, which has nine Maersk vessels with an average capacity of 6,086 TEUs, recently added an eastbound call at Tangiers in place of a previous eastbound call at Malaga.
The AE10 has a revised rotation of Gwangyang, Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Gdansk, Aarhus, Gothenburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Algeciras, Tangiers, Yantian, Hong Kong, and Gwangyang.
Maersk’s subsidiary Safmarine markets no space on the AE9 or AE10 loops, although its intra-Europe specialist brand Seago now calls at Tangiers with its “Levant” and “Mediterranean” services.
What is surprising is the spread of hub and spoke connections over Tangiers which Maersk has created with just these four services. Both AE9 and AE10 only call at Tangiers in the non-Daily Maersk direction, eastbound. AE9 then runs non-stop to Ningbo, Shanghai and Xiamen, while AE10, also non-stop, covers Yantian, Hong Kong and Guangyang.
However, AE9, AE10 and Seago’s Levant all arrive at Tangiers from different ports in North Europe: AE9 from Felixstowe and Zeebrugge; AE10 from Gdansk, Aahus Gothenburg, Bremerhaven and Rotterdam; and Levant from Hamburg and Antwerp. Not only can AE9 cross-feed its origin and destination ports in North Europe and Asia with AE10 and Levant, but AE10 has already had two days in Algeciras dropping off and picking up other connecting cargo there before tooping off in Tangiers.
Finally the Levant and Mediterranean Seago loops feed Tangiers with Mediterranean cargo inbound from Salerno/Valencia and outbound to the East Med. — ComPair Data, Ben Meyer and Francis Phillips
Second Maersk loop adds Tangiers
