News / Malaysia upholds ban so Zim re-routes services to omit Port Klang

© Tan Kian Yong | Dreamstime.com - Ships at Northport, Klang, Malaysia - Series 3

Following the December announcement by Malaysian prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that the country’s ports would no longer service calls by Zim ships, the Israeli carrier has cancelled all calls to the main hub of Port Klang.

In addition, there is now no mention of Malaysia on the carrier’s website, and it is absent from a drop-down list of shippers’ destinations.

As previously reported by The Loadstar, the two services most affected by Mr Anwar’s decree were its Asia-Europe ZMP and its Asia-America Baltimore Express (ZXB), both standalone services operated independently by Zim.

Port Klang acted as the Zim’s South-east Asia transhipment call on the ZMP service, which connects China, South-east Asia and the eastern Mediterranean. The headhaul call at Port Klang has been replaced with a transhipment call at the Sri Lankan hub of Colombo and a call at the Vietnamese gateway of Cai Mep has also been added.

Meanwhile, Port Klang also acted as the starting port for the ZXB service, which has also been replaced with a call at Cai Mep.

While replacing Port Klang with Colombo and Cai Mep is relatively simple, as Zim controls all the vessels deployed on these services, it is trickier with the Asia-West Africa FAX, where it deploys seven vessels on a string it operates in conjunction with Cosco and ONE, with Gold Star Line and OOCL as slot charterers, and which features two calls at Port Klang.

According to a Loadstar analysis of vessel traffic sites, over the past few weeks several Zim vessels on this service have skipped Port Klang in favour of a call at Singapore – notably the 2,824 teu GSL Valerie, which was due to call at Port Klang tomorrow, but according to vesselsvalue.com is currently moored in the Malacca Straits, and its new destination is Singapore.

Meanwhile, the 4,250 teu Vulpecula is en route to Port Klang and is due to arrive on 19 January.