Maersk will deploy eight vessels on the service, which will likely call at Guayaquil, Balboa, Manzanillo, Algeciras, Izmit, Ambarli, Novorossiysk and Ilyichevsk.
The port rotation has yet to be decided, and, like the Ecubex service between Guayaquil and the Baltic, could take in other gateways in Central America and the Caribbean, such as Puerto Limon and Puerto Moin in Costa Rica.
Up to now Maersk has served the Black Sea via transshipment only, so the new loop will provide a direct weekly service for Ecuador's reefer cargo exporters.
Currently, Maersk Line has a feeder service to Novorossiysk, Russia’s largest Black Sea port, which also calls at Port Said and Ashdod. In Novorossiysk, the service calls at the NUTEP terminal.