Maersk sees Cape route a permanent unless Suez tolls cut
Maersk Line is reportedly planning to divert addition Asia-Europe cargo around the Cape of Good Hope unless Suez Canal transit tolls are reduced.
While no reaction has come from the Suez Canal Authority, Maersk representatives, including AP Moller-Maersk CEO Nils Andersen and Maersk Line CEO Eivind Kolding, have met Suez Canal Authority officials and received an sympathetic hearing.
Maersk reportedly plans to re-route another five services via the Cape after already diverting its premier AE7 loop that deploys its largest ships. The AE7 was to be re-routed for just six eastbound voyages, but Maersk is looking at it as a fixed as long as the "very significant" financial benefits are there, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.
The AE7 service, which operates with eight vessels of 11,000 TEU each, backed up by an extra vessel of around 8,500 TEU, will make the last Europe/Mediterranean call eastbound at Algeciras then head south around the Cape, a move that adds between five and seven days on eastbound transit times to Asia.
Suez transit costs the world's largest containerships $700,000.
While no reaction has come from the Suez Canal Authority, Maersk representatives, including AP Moller-Maersk CEO Nils Andersen and Maersk Line CEO Eivind Kolding, have met Suez Canal Authority officials and received an sympathetic hearing.
Maersk reportedly plans to re-route another five services via the Cape after already diverting its premier AE7 loop that deploys its largest ships. The AE7 was to be re-routed for just six eastbound voyages, but Maersk is looking at it as a fixed as long as the "very significant" financial benefits are there, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.
The AE7 service, which operates with eight vessels of 11,000 TEU each, backed up by an extra vessel of around 8,500 TEU, will make the last Europe/Mediterranean call eastbound at Algeciras then head south around the Cape, a move that adds between five and seven days on eastbound transit times to Asia.
Suez transit costs the world's largest containerships $700,000.