Direct services to East and West Africa THE SAFARI service, a joint operation between Safmarine and Maersk Sealand, on the South Africa - Asia route is upgrading to accommodate growth. A second string will be added as well as two new direct services on the Asia – East Africa and West Africa routes. The introduction of a second string, effective from the second quarter of 2006, will mean twice weekly, named-day calls from Asia to southern Africa, with five ships of 1500 nominal TEU deployed calling at Port Elizabeth and Durban, Tanjung Pelepas, Singapore, and Toamasina, Safmarine liner executive Torsten Hartmann told FTW. “The main Safari string will continue with a total of eight vessels (including the four original Big Whites), calling Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Port Louis, Tanjung Pelepas, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas and Port Louis,” he said. “The new Cape Town call will herald the return of the original Big Whites to the Western Cape and effectively more than halve transit times from the Far East, avoiding transhipments.” A new weekly Asia - West Africa direct service, commencing early December this year and consisting of nine vessels, will offer direct calls from Hong Kong, Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas into Cape Town, Tema, Lome, Apapa, Cotonou and Abidjan. In February next year the Cape Town calls will be replaced by Walvis Bay calls, reducing current transit times by a week and offering fast connections to Matadi and Luanda. To complement these two new changes, a new Asia - East Africa direct service will be introduced with a direct product in March 2006 from Tanjung Pelepas via Jakarta into Victoria, Dar Es Salaam and Mombasa. “This means a transit of just over 12 days between Tanjung Pelepas and Dar Es Salaam,” he said.
