Lines bring on pre-peak season F-E capacity

There are already growing cargo volumes leading into the SA seafreight peak season – which is expected to run during the five months leading up to the festive season. This will see an additional string being added to the Asia-SE-East Coast South America service (ASAS) jointly run by Hamburg Süd and Maersk Line (with Safmarine slot-chartering space), according to Maersk Line’s SA MD, David Williams. “In order to cover peak seasonal requirements,” he told FTW, “we have decided to introduce this second string – which will be operated with 10 vessels (five from each line), each with an effective capacity of 2 100-TEU. “The two strings are coordinated in such a way that they provide for the most complete coverage in the trade with fast transit times between key port pairs.” This will see SA coverage being transferred from the current ASAS service to the String 2 during the peak loader period – with the first SA call to be the Bella (voyage 001) calling Durban westbound on July 24. Starting from the first week of July, the service will operate String 1 on the port rotation of: Nagoya–Yokohama– Pusan–Shanghai–Hong Kong–Tanjung Pelepas– Singapore–Sepetiba– Santos–Buenos Aires–Rio Grande–Navegantes– Paranagua–Santos– Singapore–Hong Kong– Nagoya. String 2, meantime, will run: Shanghai–Ningbo– Dachan Bay–Hong Kong–Singapore–Tanjung Pelepas–Durban–Santos– Itajai–Port Elizabeth– Durban–Shanghai. “After the end of the peak season demand, which is expected to last through to November,” Williams added, “the lines intend to return to a single string configuration.”