THERE ARE changes on the US - Southern Africa seafreight route where SafBank Line and Lykes Lines have terminated their agreement.
Lykes Lines will launch an independent service next month between the United States (East Coast and Gulf), Mexico, West Africa, South Africa and Brazil offering transhipment links to East Africa via South Africa.
The SafBank service will meantime continue unchanged, as SafBank chief executive officer Duncan Mackintosh told FTW from Cape Town today:
SafBank will retain the current fleet of four multi-purpose vessels and there will be no interruption to the current levels of service to our customers.
The multi-purpose service will continue unaltered with its 18-day frequency.
The weekly named-day express container service which SafBank operates in conjunction with its partners, Maersk-Sealand and MSC, remains in place in its current form. However, the slot charter arrangement with Lykes Lines on this service has also been terminated.
This takes effect from the southbound sailing of Nomzi from Charleston on March 6 and the northbound sailing of Cape Norman from Cape Town on March 3.
Lykes' new, twice monthly service will operate with four newly-chartered ships, the Lykes Striker, Lykes Victor, Lykes Flyer and Lykes Leader. They are all Neptune 900 class multi-purpose ships, 930 teu, 20,870cbm, with 45 reefer connections.
The Lykes Striker will initiate the service on March 2 with the first southbound sailing from Baltimore.
The first northbound sailing will be on March 7, when the Lykes Victor departs from Cape Town.
Says Terry Burrows, executive vice president: It is part of our strategy of identifying trade lanes which we can enter as an independent, offering a highly competitive service product.
The port rotation is: Cape Town, Durban, Salvador, Veracruz, Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Baltimore, Abidjan, Cape Town.
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