Maersk Line has announced improvements to its network between Asia and North Europe by offering a more reliable product and enhanced transit times in key corridors, while delivering operational cost savings.
Maersk Line will also eliminate overlapping port pairs in order to reduce the number of direct port calls in the network.
This enables increased reliability through slower network speeds while the reduction in port calls make it possible for Maersk Line to maintain competitive transit times.
Maersk Line will also strengthen its products into Germany and the Netherlands. They will feature market leading transit times from main Asian markets to Bremerhaven and Rotterdam, where westbound transit times are improved by as much as four days.
Eastbound transit time between Rotterdam and Shanghai is reduced by five days.
Vincent Clerc, CCO in Maersk Line, said: “We are utilising our scale to deliver a better product. With the largest network and the deployment of an increasingly uniform fleet of ultra large container vessels, we maintain our extensive direct coverage while focusing each service towards best in class transit times to specific markets on the trade.”
Technical Paper: Q&A with Maersk Line
Maersk Line has drawn on experience from the first year of operations of the 2M alliance when adjusting the network.
Launched in the beginning of 2015, the 10-year agreement with MSC is the only global alliance not affected by the current shake up among global container shipping alliances.
The OCEAN alliance currently has the largest capacity share on the East-West trade at 34%, followed by ‘THE Alliance’, 2M and the others, respectively.
Nominal East-West ship capacity shares of three mega-alliances, April 2016. #TriviaTuesday pic.twitter.com/j067erG6zD
— Port Technology Int (@PortTechnology) May 17, 2016
Clerc continues: “Our improved network is the result of a stable, maturing alliance seeking to address current customer-felt pain points.
“It strengthens our commercial offering and offers shippers a stable choice in times where other alliance networks await reshuffling.”
The improvements to the network are anticipated to be fully phased in during Q3, 2016.
PTI previously reported that Maersk had optimised its AC Network with the launch of its AC1 service, which connects the West Coast of Latin America with Asia.
Fact File: Maersk Line is the world’s largest container shipping company, known for reliable, flexible and eco-efficient services. It provides ocean transportation in all parts of the world and serves customers through 324 offices in 115 countries. Maersk Line is part of the Maersk Group, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The group employs more than 88,000 people in 130 countries. 2015 revenue was recorded at US$40.3 billion.
