Maersk adjusting Oceania/Americas service
Maersk Line said today it is restructuring its Oceania-Americas (OC1) service in June with port calls being added in the United States at Miami (inbound) and Newark, and at Napier in New Zealand.
However, looking at a future round voyage schedule of one of the ships on the service, the 2,240-TEU Nora Maersk, calls at Kingston in Jamaica and Brisbane in Australia are being dropped, and despite claims of fast transit times, compare Data, American Shipper's affiliated database for global liner services, says that northbound service levels from Australia will be quite heavily trimmed.
The projected port rotation of the OC1 will be: Philadelphia; Newark, N.J.; Norfolk, Va.; Savannah, Ga.; Balboa, Panama; Auckland; Sydney; Melbourne; Auckland; New Plymouth; Timaru; Port Chalmers; Napier; Auckland; Balboa; Miami; and back to Philadelphia.
The round-trip voyage times are being extended from 63 days to 70 days and Maersk's newly reorganized inland service structure in North America could also negatively impact the service levels perceived by shippers.
The southbound transit time from Savannah to Sydney will improve by two days to 25 days at the expense of three days longer to Melbourne and one day longer to Auckland. However, export shipments from the Midwest under intermodal carrier service will now all have to be routed via Norfolk, taking two days longer than via Savannah.
By virtue of three calls at the Port of Auckland, the transit time from the New Zealand port to the first U.S. port in, Philadelphia, improves from 25 days to 21 days.
Northbound transits from Australia to the United States will increase, with Sydney/Philadelphia rising from 31 days to 38 days. For intermodal delivery to the Midwest (now compulsory via Newark), the best sea transit time rises to 40 days. The best port transit by sea will now still be only 35 days, to Miami, but because of the Florida port's limited intermodal coverage, any importers from further distances in a hurry will have to pay for full round trip drayage themselves.
A U.S.-based spokesman for Maersk Line said that most of its customers using the OC1 service will benefit from the upcoming rotation change.
'We would also like to point out that Melbourne, which handles substantially higher export and import volumes ' is only impacted by two days to Philadelphia, but in the same time will benefit from a five-day reduction in transit time to Newark. In addition, that transit times to Miami are reduced by four days from Sydney and eight days from Melbourne,' said Gordon Dorsey, corporate communications at Maersk's U.S. base in Giralda Farms, N.J.
'New Zealand is also served by our Oceania/Americas service,' Dorsey said. 'We have improved the transit time from Auckland to Newark by nine days and to Philadelphia by five days.
'We acknowledge that certain selected port pairs will not experience improved transit times. However, a majority of customers stand to benefit from our restructured service, and enjoy fast and improved transit times. A few examples to the contrary cannot alter this fact,' he said.
'Maersk Line always focuses on delivering consistent and reliable service to our valued customers, meeting their demand for flexible, fast, tailor-made solutions,' said Peter Frederiksen, Maersk's group senior vice president. 'By introducing an upgraded and dedicated service in the Oceania/Americas trade, we aim to offer the best product to our customers. By having the widest scope of direct port calls along with the fastest transit times in the trade, we intend to create further opportunities for our customers.'
The service previously worked as a pendulum operation connecting Europe, the U.S. East Coast and Australasia, before the Danish carrier ended its direct services between Europe and Australasia at the start of this year. All cargo between Europe and Oceania now goes through Maersk's Malaysian hub at the Port of Tanjung Pelepas.
Details of the revised OC1 service are now available from ComPair Data at http://www.compairdata.com.