News Content
2M alliance drops Southampton on Asia-Europe service
THE 2M alliance, comprising Maersk and MSC, will not be calling Southampton at the end of March after it announced it will drop the call at Britain's second largest container gateway by the Asia-Europe AE1/Shogun service the carriers jointly operate.
A spokesman for Maersk said: "The reason for withdrawing the Southampton call was because we could not offer reliable service with the number of port calls in the rotation. Thus, in order to improve our service quality, we decided to take the call out."
The last 2M vessel to call at Southampton will be the 19,500 TEU MSC Diana, which is set to depart Colombo on 28 February and, according to Maersk's schedule, arrive at Southampton on March 21, reported London's Loadstar.
The spokesman confirmed that this would end the line's direct services into the port. "We will offer a service into Southampton using a third-party operated feeder."
Maersk said that "until further notice" Southampton-bound cargo would be carried on feeder vessels out of continental ports to Felixstowe and trucked from there, or shippers could book cargo on the recently launched feeder service between Rotterdam and Bristol.
In December last year, Maersk and European feeder specialist BG Freight Line jointly launched a weekly string between the two ports, deploying a 1,000-TEU vessel, which was said to be attracting interest from a "wide range of trades, including forest products, alcohol and retail".
A spokesman for Maersk said: "The reason for withdrawing the Southampton call was because we could not offer reliable service with the number of port calls in the rotation. Thus, in order to improve our service quality, we decided to take the call out."
The last 2M vessel to call at Southampton will be the 19,500 TEU MSC Diana, which is set to depart Colombo on 28 February and, according to Maersk's schedule, arrive at Southampton on March 21, reported London's Loadstar.
The spokesman confirmed that this would end the line's direct services into the port. "We will offer a service into Southampton using a third-party operated feeder."
Maersk said that "until further notice" Southampton-bound cargo would be carried on feeder vessels out of continental ports to Felixstowe and trucked from there, or shippers could book cargo on the recently launched feeder service between Rotterdam and Bristol.
In December last year, Maersk and European feeder specialist BG Freight Line jointly launched a weekly string between the two ports, deploying a 1,000-TEU vessel, which was said to be attracting interest from a "wide range of trades, including forest products, alcohol and retail".
Latest News
- For the first time, tianjin Port realized the whole process of dock operati...
- From January to August, piracy incidents in Asia increased by 38%!The situa...
- Quasi-conference TSA closes as role redundant in mega merger world
- Singapore says TPP, born again as CPTPP, is now headed for adoption
- Antwerp posts 5th record year with boxes up 4.3pc to 10 million TEU
- Savannah lifts record 4 million TEU in '17 as it deepens port
