MSC Plans Asia-Europe Services Revamp to Improve Reliability

zoom Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), worlds second largest container line and Maersk Lines partner in the 2M vessel sharing alliance, plans to optimise all of its Asia-Europe services in an effort to improve its schedule reliability. Over the next several months the Swiss carrier plans to progressively implement changes to port combinations, vessel rotations and capacity deployment within its Asia-Europe services. MSC launched the new Asia-Europe network in January 2015. According to data gathered by MSC, the Asia – North Europe trade was reported to be performing at 92.1% reliability as of May 2015. The optimisation is expected to sustain and improve on this figure. The company also plans to reduce the average vessel size on the Condor service, which operates on the Asia – Europe trade, from 9,500 TEUs to 6,500 TEUs. The network changes apply equally to MSCs 2M partners, and the changes are expected to be fully effective by the middle of August. Revised rotations and full service details, which are subject to regulatory requirements, are currently being finalised.