News / Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd shuffle port calls on transatlantic services

Photo: VesselFinder

With the launch of the Gemini Cooperation less than a fortnight away, partners Maersk Line and Hapag-Lloyd appear to be fine-tuning their slightly varying transatlantic networks.

Yesterday, Maersk announced the mid-February launch of the new TA5, which it described as “a one-way service outside the Gemini Cooperation connecting UK and North Europe to Philadelphia directly”.

The service will have a port rotation of London Gateway-Hamburg-Rotterdam-Antwerp-Philadelphia, and is set to launch with the 19 February arrival of the 2,500 teu Puerto Limon Express at London Gateway.

At the same time, the Gemini Cooperation’s planned TA3/AL1 (Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd) service will drop the planned Philadelphia call in favour of a call at Norfolk.

The Puerto Limon Express is currently chartered by Hapag-Lloyd, which has also unveiled changes to its standalone transatlantic Caribbean Express Service (CES) which coincide with the launch of Maersk’s TA5.

Find out whether Hapag-Lloyd’s Henrik Schilling thinks shippers will pay more for a better service in this clip from The Loadstar Podcast

In particular, the revised CES will drop its Norfolk call in favour of Philadelphia, with a new rotation of London Gateway-Hamburg-Rotterdam-Antwerp-Saint John-Philadelphia-Port Everglades-Santa Marta-Puerto Limon-Caucedo-Antwerp.

According to the eeSea liner database, the current CES service has seven ships deployed with an average capacity of 2,500 teu, and the redesigned port rotation means a call at Kingston has also been dropped.

Hapag-Lloyd said customers needing to ship to the Jamaican hub would need to tranship at Colombia’s port of Cartagena, which is served on the German carrier’s Europe-South America west coast SWX service, which it operates in cooperation with CMA CGM and Cosco, and on which Maersk and OOCL charter slots, according to eeSea.

Meanwhile, the first sailing of the TA5/AL1 Gemini transatlantic service will be the 18 February departure of the Maersk-owned 8,200 teu Santa Ines from Southampton.