Kris Van Den Brande, Safmarine's Trade Director, said: 'The restructuring decision (in line with the Group's rationalization and optimisation plans) affecting the trade between the Far East and the Indian Subcontinent to Northern Europe will result in improved port coverage and reliability of Safmarine's services out of South India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
'Our customers in the Indian Subcontinent will benefit from improved transit times on the AE7 service's new direct call in Colombo (transit time between Colombo and North Europe will improve by two to three days), while Safmarine's Northern Europe export customers to the Indian Subcontinent will be covered by a direct call in Colombo (on the AE6 service).
'These changes aim to help establish a more balanced supply/demand scenario within the Far East to North Europe trade,' he said. Notable key features of the enhancements to dedicated feeder links are for example: in Bangladesh a dedicated feeder link between Chittagong and Tanjung Pelepas will provide access to the Group's Far East-Europe network and daily departures to the main Northern Europe (NWC) hubs and in South India, the weekly Chennai feeder via Colombo will help to restore the service and transit time reliability.
