More shipper pain on the way as carriers levy new peak season surcharges
Ocean carriers have continued their flurry of surcharge and rate increase announcements, which “continue to ...
Photo: VesselFinder
Maersk and CMA CGM are reorganising their joint Far East-West Africa coverage, after the trade grew more than 30% last year, making it the highest-growing corridor in Container Trade Statistics’ global volume figures for 2025.
Last year also saw MSC’s decision to significantly upgrade its Far East-West Africa capacity with a fleet of ultra-large containerships to the trade, and this week saw the response from its competitors, as CMA GCM and Maersk expanded their offerings.
In addition to the Asia-West Africa WAX2/FEW3 service, the two carriers will launch the WAX1/FEW1 service with the departure of the of 14,800 teu CMA CGM Bali from Qingdao on 31 March. The vessel is currently deployed on the WAX2/FEW3 string.
WAX1/FEW1 will feature a port rotation of Qingdao–Ningbo–Nansha–Shekou–Singapore–Abidjan–Lekki–Kribi–Vung Tau.
The number of ships and their capacity on the new service have not been published yet, however the WAX2 service requires 13 vessels to maintain a weekly frequency.
“We are adding a completely new service to accommodate the increasing demand on the Asia–West Africa corridor. This expansion reflects the long-term development of the region,” said a Maersk customer advisory. “By dividing the current FEW3 rotation into two focused services, FEW3 and FEW1, we reduce operational complexity.”
The launch of WAX1 means the two carriers will now cooperate on four services between the two regions – the WAX3/FEW2 will continue with an unchanged port rotation and, according to Xeneta’s eeSea liner database, they continue to cooperate on the ASAFGR/FEW6, which also has Cosco as a tonnage provider and OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd as slot charterers.
What impact the new capacity will have on rate levels remains to be seen, but despite the volume growth over the last year, spot rates from China to West Africa have been on the decline during the period.
According to the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI), the Shanghai-Lagos spot rate stood at $3,024 per teu on 6 February – which was down 18.9% on three months ago, and a sizeable 27.4% drop year on year.
Comment on this article