Maersk revamps Far East, Middle East & South Asia services
MAERSK Line says it is making a number of changes to its ocean liner services that call at ports in the Far East, Middle East and South Asia this month and next.
Maersk Line said in a statement that it plans to replace the existing FM1 and FM2 loops with an upgraded FM1 service that will in future deploy larger post-Panamax vessels.
The present transit times from South Korea and China are expected to remain the same, however, the cargo cut-off times will be adjusted.
The future port rotation for the upgraded FM1 will be: Qingdao, Xingang, Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Jebel Ali, and Singapore.
Under the new arrangements, the FM2 service will be scrapped and subsequently the Japan and Southeast Asia markets presently served by the FM2 will be served instead by the revamped FM1 via the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia.
The carrier also plans to improve port coverage from south China to south Asia by adding a port of call at Nansha to the FM3 service. Furthermore, slightly larger vessels will be deployed on the FM3.
The port rotation for the FM3 service will be: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Nansha, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Nhava Sheva, Port Qasim, Colombo, Tanjung Pelepas, Hong Kong, and back to Shanghai.
The third service amendment will provide wider port coverage from the Far East to the Red Sea region, as the AE3 service will serve the Japan/Jeddah market.
The AE3 will in future make the following port calls to: Nagoya, Yokohama, Shimizu, Hakata, Tanjung Pelepas, Jeddah, (Europe).
The AE3 additionally aims to complement the FM4 service, which will serve the Port of Salalah later this year. The calling ports will then be: Tanjung Pelepas, Colombo, Salalah, Jeddah, and (Europe), the company added.