To cope with the soaring bunker price and in the light of deteriorating market conditions between the Far East and South Africa / East Coast South America, Evergreen and Coscon will combine their existing jointly-operated Far East - South America (ESA) service and Far East -Africa Express (FAX) into a new ESA service.
From July 6th, the new ESA service will operate with a total of eleven 3,500 TEU vessels - seven from Evergreen and four from Coscon - calling at Shanghai > Ningbo > Kaohsiung > Yantian > Hong Kong > Singapore > Tanjung Pelepas > Durban > Cape Town > Montevideo > Buenos Aires > Paranagua > Santos > Durban > Singapore > Hong Kong > Shanghai.
Safmarine has enhanced its existing Southern Africa - Far East (Safari) service with the introduction of a new string dedicated to the Indian Ocean Islands and Mozambique.
Effective today, the Safari 3 string will improve direct coverage of the niche ports of Toamasina and Maputo to and from Asia, but it will also strengthen Safmarine's service into South Africa by taking the Indian Ocean Islands out of the westbound rotation of the main Safari string where customers require fast transit times.
Five 1,700 TEU vessels will be deployed on the weekly Safari 3 service, linking Asia to Mozambique and the Indian Ocean Islands with direct calls at Tanjung Pelepas, Port Louis, Toamasina and Maputo.
The eastbound transit time between Maputo and Tanjung Pelepas will be 15 days.
Swire Shipping has upgraded its Trans Tasman service framework between New Zealand and Australia, with the addition of direct port calls from Timaru and Tauranga to Brisbane and Townsville.
These additional connections are facilitated via the expansion of Tasman Orient's new North Asia service, which will complement Swire's existing Tasman Shuttle Service. This will almost double the current 24 westbound Trans Tasman sailings (to 46 per year) and provide greater port coverage.
The service will deploy four multi-purpose tweendeck vessels, up to 25,000 tons DWT.
Transit times from Tauranga to Brisbane is four days.
Swire Shipping has also upgraded its service operating between Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands with the addition of a third Miho class vessel (980 TEU).
This upgrade will result in improved frequency (ten days) and capacity to and from Australia.
The port rotation is:
- Australian ports - Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane
- PNG port rotation - Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Kimbe / Rabaul, Lihir
- Solomon Islands port - Honiara
