Consolidation to reduce delays

Maersk and MSC are consolidating port calls at Felixstowe and Rotterdam on two of the 2M Alliance’s Far East Asia to North Europe services, in a bid to reduce waiting times and congestion.

The shipping lines will consolidate the AE1 Felixstowe port call with the AE55, extending the time in port on the latter to accommodate volumes from the previous AE1 call. They will then move the Rotterdam port call from the AE55 to the AE1.

In a customer notice, Maersk stated: “As a result of the exceptional waiting time and congestion faced in North Europe, Maersk will reduce the number of North European port calls by consolidating the Felixstowe and Rotterdam calls between both the AE1 and AE55. While we realise that this equals fewer calls to North Europe, we believe this to be the best course of action to mitigate the full disruption across the network.

“We do believe by making these rotations leaner, we will mitigate delays into North European terminals with a reduced transit time into both Rotterdam and Bremerhaven.”

So far the response from Europe has been favourable with the Port of Felixstowe welcoming the change to the schedules. “The change is driven, in part, by strong demand for goods into the UK and the Port of Felixstowe with volumes over 10% up on last year,” said a statement issued by the port.

“There are no landside delays at Felixstowe and combining both services into a single call will provide a faster, more efficient and more reliable service for shippers,” it added.

The new AE1 rotation will be: Ningbo – Xiamen – Yantian – Tanjung Pelepas – Rotterdam – Bremerhaven – Rotterdam – Port Tangiers – Salalah – Hong Kong.

The new AE55 rotation will be: Shanghai – Ningbo – Tanjung Pelepas – Felixstowe – Le Havre – Algeciras – Singapore.