Maritime Carrier Shipping has started its vessel reallocation programme as it prepares for a fleet upgrade that will see the acquisition of six new vessels, the first to be delivered early next year. The line has redeployed two vessels from its multi-purpose Europe-SA service to the Southern Africa-Mexico-USA Gulf Africa Line (GAL) service where they replace two 38-year-old ships that have been sold. It’s all a question of supply and demand, MACS’ Marc Frauendorf told FTW. “The cargo flows have dropped and it was a good opportunity to move two ships to the GAL service and to reduce the overall fleet,” he said. And while the MACS service will operate with two fewer ships in the interim, the fleet will ultimately be bolstered by newer tonnage. The line will take delivery of a series of 37 000dwt newbuildings with 2 000 TEU capacity in 2010, to be delivered at 6-monthly intervals. These are slightly bigger and faster than the current fleet and purpose-designed to suit the needs of the multi-purpose market niche that the line serves.
