Maersk's Asia-Europe shipping lane AE9 has started calling at south eastern China's Fuzhou International Container Terminal (FICT), Xinhua reports.
The AE9 deploys nine ships ranging from 6,250 to 7,250 TEU, offering a weekly capacity of 7,050 TEU, representing about 10 per cent of the total capacity of Maersk's Asia-Europe capacity. The lane calls at FICT every Thursday with a rotation of Ningbo, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Suez Canal, Rotterdam, Bremen, Felixstowe, Zeebrugge, Algeciras, Tangier, Suez Canal and back to Xiamen.
Maersk started calling at FICT in 2008. Last year, it contributed 132,000 TEU to Fuzhou's throughput, up 14 per cent year on year, growing faster than Fuzhou's foreign trade throughput growth of 10.4 per cent. The carrier has become the largest contributor to Fuzhou's box throughput.
Fuzhou port's Jiangyin port area, where FICT is located, handled 754,000 TEU last year, 16.6 per cent more than in 2010.