MAERSK SEALAND, SAFMARINE START MIDEAST/SOUTH AFRICA/SOUTH AMERICA LINK

MAERSK SEALAND, SAFMARINE START MIDEAST/SOUTH AFRICA/SOUTH AMERICA LINK

   Maersk Sealand and Safmarine, two companies of the A.P. Moller group, will commence mid-January 2001 a container service to connect the Mideast, the Indian Ocean islands, Southern Africa and the East Coast of South America.

   The service, named Samba, is an extension across the Atlantic ocean of the carriers’ Mideast/Southern Africa service.

   The fortnightly service will have a rotation of Salalah, Oman; Port Reunion; Port Louis; Toamasina; Durban; Santos; Paranagua; Itajai; Rio Grande; Montevideo; Cape Town; Port Elizabeth; Durban and Salalah. It will use four container vessels of 1,000-TEU capacity, capable of carryings 200 reefer containers.

   Safmarine and Maersk Sealand will market the service separately.

   Safmarine said that the new operation will be its first dedicated service across the South Atlantic. For Safmarine, the South American/Mideast

market is a new liner trade.

   Maersk Sealand previously served this trade by transshipment over its Mediterranean hub in Algeciras. Maersk Sealand said that the new service will carry both Mideast and Far Eastern cargoes to and from South America.