WITH THE April restructuring of Safari, three shipping lines have gone their own ways - and all, said spokesmen, intend to continue serving the Asia-SA trade.
The "new" Safari will comprise Safmarine, Maersk Sealand (previous partners) and MSC as a new member line.
Out on their own are Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), K-Line and the Malaysian International Shipping Company (MISC).
MOL has been first out of the blocks with details of its new service.
According to information from president Kunio Suzuki, the line will develop two existing trunk lines - CSW on the Asia-East Coast South America service, and CWA on the Asia-West Africa service - to provide an "upgraded" SA service at the end of operation of the current Safari partnership next April.
"Using these two loops to create a more effective port call rotation MOL will be able to offer a wider range of services to and from all of southern Africa," said Suzuki.
It is also the line's intention to increase the service frequency to twice a week from the current weekly schedule, and transit time, FTW was told, will be about a week faster.
This new, combined service will be inaugurated when the MOL Parana sails from Yokohama on April 4.
K-Line and MISC, meantime, are still silent about details of their own services, but the options are plentiful. Either going it alone; or in an agreement with another line, or with one of the existing consortia; or in a slot charter deal, although the last is said to be unlikely.
MISC to stay
in the trade
"But K-Line will continue to be very much involved in this trade," said Mike Atter, m.d. of Rennies Ships Agency whose subsidiary Freightmarine is the line's SA agent.
"However, they haven't as yet made known what their intentions are."
Much the same words came from Dave Orchard, line manager for MISC at agents, Bridge Shipping.
"MISC intend to stay in the trade," he told FTW, "although no detail is yet available."
Orchard also revealed that MISC and K-Line were still talking but the result of this confab has not yet been released.
