MSC joins Maersk and Safmarine in new SAFARI

Alan Peat AFTER 20 years, during which time various individual member lines have come and gone, the Safari vessel-sharing agreement is now to be completely restructured. It will however continue in its current format until the new consortium takes to the seas from April next year. Pulling out of the agreement are MISC, K Line and Mitsui OSK Line (MOL). This will leave Safmarine and Maersk Sealand who will be joined by another major carrier on the SA scene, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). In the new service, Safmarine and Maersk will provide three ships each, with MSC one ship initially but intending to introduce its second vessel by the end of 2002. The seven-ship fleet will offer a weekly named day schedule providing faster round voyages of 49 days (currently 63 days). Sector transit times will also be faster, with Busan-Durban eight days faster, for example, at 19 days, and Hong Kong-Cape Town seven days faster at 19 days. The service also focuses on the growing importance of the Chinese market, with Safari serving Shanghai directly for the first time and cutting two weeks off the current cargo transit times between Shanghai and Durban to 17 days. Other new ports of call will be Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia, and Port Louis in Mauritius. The full port rotation will be: Busan-Shanghai-Hong Kong-Tanjung Pelepas-Port Louis-Durban-Port Elizabeth-Cape Town-Durban-Port Louis-Tanjung Pelepas-Hong Kong-Keelung-Busan. But the new service will also offer an extensive range of additional seaports including ports in Japan, Thailand and Indonesia. These will be catered for by dedicated feeder vessels, under direct management, and with through bills of lading. Said Ivan Heesom-Green, SafmarineÕs lines trade executive: "We welcome MSC, with which we already have co-operative agreements in other trade lanes. "The new arrangements will ensure seamless relay to Safmarine's other services - notably those between Southern and West Africa and between Southern Africa and east coast South America."