Strategic adjustments are behind fleet realignment on the Europe route that has seen the SA Europe Container Service (Saecs) phasing out three vessels on its intermediate service while MSC is in the process of upgrading its Europe-SA service with overPanamaxes of 5 000- 6 000 teus. Saecs said that its vessel reduction was in anticipation of the low-season in SA-Europe shipping. It was merely a strategic fleet adjustment based on the philosophy that it is better to sail fewer vessels than sail with your whole fleet half-full. It was the same thinking at MSC. “Yes,” said traffic manager Dallas Sutton. They were using bigger ships. “Yes,” he added, “and one of them might even have been the biggest containership ever to trade between Europe and SA.” But, yes, it’s also a strategic adjustment, using larger ships when the capacity demand is there but then redeploying them elsewhere when volumes drop. “In the return to smaller vessels, it’s a case of it’s better to have to leave cargo behind than run with ships having empty space for Africa on their decks.”
