Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) announced it will start a new direct service between Asia and West Africa this month.
The new Africa Express will now be shipping cargo from the Far East directly to West Africa, with MSC no longer transshipping through the Mediterranean, to improve transit time to Tinca-Lagos in Nigeria to 28 days from Chiwan in China and 23 days from Singapore.
The service will be deploying 10 ships, each with a capacity of 4,000 TEUs, and will also be calling Port Louis in Mauritius on its way to West Africa
The first sailing is the Mare Atlanticum from Nansha, China, on April 24, 2014. Port rotation is Nansha, Chiwan, Singapore, Port Louis, Tincan Island-Lagos, San Pedro, Abidjan, Coega, Colombo, Singapore, and Nansha.
Meanwhile, United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) will replace Israel’s Zim Integrated Shipping on China Shipping Container Lines’ (CSCL) Asia-North Europe AEX 1 service from the end April.
The development will result in changes for UASC’s AEX 7/AEC 8 service that CMA CGM is leaving, taking with it its only ship, the CMA CGM Nevada.
The Nevada is to be replaced in May by two of UASC’s 13,100-TEU ships, which are to be withdrawn from the FAL 1/AEC 2 service it jointly operates with CMA CGM. UASC will leave the AEC 2 service.
The AEX 1, to be branded AEC 1 by UASC, will use ten 9,500-TEU ships, all from CSCL.
The rotation will be revised to drop westbound calls at Dalian in China and Port Klang in Malaysia and to replace the Antwerp, Belgium call with Zeebrugge, Belgium.
The revised AEX 1 rotation is Felixstowe, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Port Klang, Nansha, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Felixstowe. The first westbound sailing leaves Qingdao, China, on April 28.
The AEX 7/AEC 8 service, meanwhile, will be run with 11 vessels from May, of which six 14,074-TEU ships will be provided by CSCL and five 13,100-TEU vessels by UASC.
The rotation will be extended by one week to 11 weeks. The Antwerp call is to be replaced by one to Zeebrugge in a port swap with the AEX 1, while a westbound call at Port Said in Egypt is added.
The revised AEX 7/AEC 8 rotation is Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Jeddah, Port Kelang, Shekou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Yantian, Port Kelang, Port Said, and Rotterdam.
Photo: moises.on
