Saf adds fourth vessel on West Africa service

TERRY HUTSON SAFMARINE WILL add a fourth multi-purpose freighter to the South Africa - West Africa service by the end of the third quarter of this year. The ‘new’ ship, which has been renamed Safmarine Namibe, is an SD14 type sister vessel to the Safmarine Congo, Safmarine Evagelia and Safmarine Meroula currently operating on the service between Durban, Cape Town and West African ports. The additional capacity comes at a time when Safmarine and Maersk Sealand are reorganising their joint container services between North Europe, the Mediterranean and West Africa on account of what is described as difficult trading conditions on those routes. The existing service uses 2000 - 2500 TEU vessels, which are being replaced with smaller ships of between 1300 and 1600 TEUs. In addition the West Mediterranean - West Africa service is likely to be served by a single ship feedering to Algeciras from where both Maersk Sealand and Safmarine will operate six-weekly loops consisting of about 20 ships from 1000 to 2500 TEU capacity operating to various West African ports. These will include the new Safmarine Cameroun type ships currently being introduced into service.