This follows an announcement that the ASAS service will be upgraded to cater for peak season demand. ' The service will, as of July 2010, be operated by two strings which have been coordinated in such a way that they provide for the most complete coverage in the Asia ' East Coast South America trade with fast transit-times between key port pairs.
Safmarine is a slot charterer on the ASAS service (operated by Maersk Line and Hamburg S'd) and, according to Safmarine's Liner Executive, Jan Scheck, 'Safmarine has successfully secured slots on both strings, which will operate for the months leading up to the December festive season. 'Not only will this new arrangement allow us to offer a new, direct product from/to Da Chan Bay and Ningbo in the Far East and Itajai in East Coast South America, but we also expect certain improvements in schedule reliability and transit times.'
The second string will deploy 10 vessels with an effective capacity of 2100 TEU. 'South Africa coverage will be transferred from the current ASAS service onto String 2 during this peak loader period with calls in Durban and Port Elizabeth.
The upgraded ASAS service will operate as follows until the end of peak season (week 44), before it will return to a single string configuration: String 1
Nagoya' Yokohama' Pusan' Shanghai' Hong Kong ' Tanjung Pelepas ' Singapore'Sepetiba ' Santos' Buenos Aires' Rio Grande' Navegantes ' Paranagua ' Santos' Singapore' Hong Kong ' Nagoya.
First vessel Westbound: M/V Monte Rosa 52P/027W (ETD Singapore: 12/07/2010)
First vessel Eastbound: M/V Monte Olivia 99D/026E (ETD Santos: 11/08/2010)
String 2
Shanghai' Ningbo' Da Chan Bay' Hong Kong ' Singapore' Tanjung Pelepas ' Durban' Santos' Itajai ' Port Elizabeth' Durban' Shanghai. First vessel Westbound: M/V Bella 3BK/001W (ETD Singapore: 12/07/2010)
First vessel Eastbound: M/V Bella 3BK/001E (ETD Santos: 10/08/2010)
