Maersk Reduces Capacity in Mediterranean-North America Service
October 14, 2009On October 12, Maersk Line announced a change to its WestMed service in the Mediterranean to North America trade.
Maersk Line will replace its 5,000-TEU vessels with ships of 2,900-TEU capacity. This change comes as a result of the discontinuation of slot purchases by APL and Hapag Lloyd in the WestMed service.
“We strive to make our products flexible in order to best serve our customers’ needs,” said Søren Castbak, Senior Director of Atlantic trades for Maersk Line. “We will also continue to look for cost savings wherever possible, and in this case there is no impact to shippers. Here is an example where we must align our network to match customers’ volume requirements.”
Vessel phase-in will begin during November and continue for several weeks until all five of the vessels are replaced with the smaller ships. The service will maintain the same rotation, with the recently announced minimal adjustment to transits to accommodate the new schedule. CMA-CGM continues to operate the sixth vessel in the vessel sharing agreement.
