Maersk slows down

Maersk Line in Denmark is planning changes to its Asia ? Europe network to improve reliability and save fuel. Among the steps to be taken will be slower sailing speeds on some routes.

The company said the changes would be introduced in February and March next year.

“We will make various changes to our schedules and simultaneously add four vessels to our Asia ? Europe network,” said a company statement. “The additional vessels and schedule changes complement our other efforts to mitigate fuel costs and reduce the environmental impact of our services.”

Maersk said its bunker costs had doubled in the last 12 months. “While selected corridors will experience a day or two more in transit time, we overall expect to offer a better service reliability,” the company said. It also said port congestion was having “an escalating impact” on its ability to provide reliable services. The addition of four vessels would “enable us to incorporate additional buffer time in our schedules”, according to Maersk.

A senior official with the French container transport and shipping company CMA CGM recently predicted that ?most? shipping lines would start steaming at “economic speed to minimise bunker fuel consumption.” It announced in November that it was cutting the speed of ships on services between Asia and Europe in order to reduce bunker costs.

Bunkerworld price data shows 380 centistoke (cst) bunker fuel reached a high of $514 per metric tonne (pmt) in Singapore in early November, up from just over $260 pmt in January this year.