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Maersk diverts from Felixstowe to London Gateway as congestion mounts

MAERSK Line, the world's biggest container carrier, has diverted the 18,340-TEU Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, which was to discharge at Hutchison's Felixstowe, will now be calling at DP World's London Gateway because of congestion at the East Anglian port.

Moreover, the 6,252-TEU Maersk Kolkata, which was also to call at Felixstowe, is now expected to dock at DP World terminal the following day.

Maersk also diverted the call of the 8,850-TEU Maersk Lavras away from Felixstowe port to London Gateway because of berth and landside congestion at Felixstowe.

Earlier last month Maersk diverted the call of the 8,850-TEU Maersk Lavras away from Felixstowe to London Gateway because of berth and landside congestion at Felixstowe.

Several carriers have diverted ships over the past month, either to London Gateway - in the case of UASC, Maersk, MSC and Zim - or to Antwerp and Rotterdam for relay back to the UK.

Then Maersk issued an advisory for its AE1 service. The Maersk Lavras is scheduled to discharge 2,251 containers (all Maersk Line cargo) at London Gateway within a 24-hour window, reported London's Loadstar.

The port of Felixstowe is currently struggling with both quay and landside congestion due to adverse weather, reported London's Container Management.

Acerbating the situation are severe gales off East Anglia while London was expected to be facing fierce winds and heavy rains hit southeastern England.

Said a London Gateway spokesman: "We are rarely disrupted by high wind, so our quay cranes continue to operate most of the time. On the land side, we do not expect to be closing the gates to the port during the bad weather coming this weekend."

Maersk Line also recently announced that it switched the UK call of its Samba service from the Port of Tilbury to DP World London Gateway Port, with the first call on the service set to be made by the Maersk Lanco on March 21.

Before that Maersk diverted the call of its 8,850-TEU Maersk Lavras away from Felixstowe to London Gateway because of berth and landside congestion.

The carrier issued an advisory notice to customers on its AE1 service last week. The Maersk Lavras is scheduled to discharge 2,251 containers (all Maersk Line cargo) at London Gateway within a 24-hour window commencing at 1am on Saturday, reported London's Loadstar.