Maersks new Asia/USEC string to enhance transpacific supply chains
Source
American Shipper
Post Date
04/20/2021
MAERSK Inc North America is to start a new service linking ports in Vietnam and China with the US east coast via the Panama Canal, starting in May, reports the American Journal of Transportation.
The TP23 string will include eight Maersk vessels and two from Zim. The rotation is inted to be Vung Tau, Shenzhen-Yantian, Panama Canal, Savannah, Charleston and Newark.
The service will improve speed, reliability and coverage and integrate into US east coast landside logistics offerings. Transit times are improved from Shenzhen-Yantian to Savannah by three to four days (28-29 days) and Yantian to Charleston by seven to eight days (28-29 days) over existing services. The Vietnam call has been added to provide more capacity to the rapidly growing market that has seen gains of 52 per cent and 25 per cent the past two years.
Said Maersk North America managing director Narin Phol: "Importers are looking for more US east coast gateways in their Asia/North America supply chains while exporters are looking for more equipment - especially in the southeast US region. The TP23 service will enable us to address these needs while integrating our warehousing & distribution network."
The evolution of the TP23 Service reflects Maersks 2020 approach to serve the transpacific to US east coast cargo surges via additional capacity from service upgrades, extra-loaders and loadings on the Asia-Europe network for transshipment onto extra loader shuttles across the transatlantic. The TP23 will now become a structured, s, weekly service in 2021 with greater reliability.
The new TP23 service highlights the innovative solutions Maersk made in 2020 to stay agile for customers facing economic and pandemic cycles by deploying 48 per cent extra capacity year on year in the transpacific trade (July-November 2020 vs July-November 2019 period). Other actions include the launching of the Asia/US west coast TP3 Service as a new 2M US west coast loop with six 13,000 TEU vessels. "The goal in 2021 is to build on this momentum and enable customers to grow their business with an integrated ocean/port/warehouse/trucking model to attain supply chain efficiency," Mr Phol said.
