Evergreen adjusts eastbound service

AS READERS will have seen from FTW’s Shipping Easifinder supplement, the Taiwanese shipping line Evergreen intends to stop calls in SA on the return leg of its Far East-SA-South America round service from April 26. But, an Evergreen source told FTW, there will be a new, supplementary service put into place to fill this SA-Far East gap - with a joint service between Evergreen, Hamburg Sud and Cosco running a shuttle between Singapore and Durban. The reasoning has come from an analysis of cargo volumes on each of the legs of the current round voyage - and the finding that the ships are now sailing fully loaded from South America. The answer has been to sail direct to Asia, missing out on the current SA ports of call, and with the supplementary service intended to fill the needs of SA shippers and importers on the SA-Far East leg. Details of this new service have yet to be released.