Published: 15 September 2011
Maersk launches daily Asia-North Europe service
Maersk Line has launched Daily Maersk, a new time-definite container service between four Asian ports and three ports in North Europe.
Maersk said the new service would dramatically change the way container shipping operates as it offers a daily cut-off at the same time every day, seven days a week, always with the same transit time.
Containerised cargo will now be delivered with unprecedented frequency and reliability, it said.
Some 70 vessels will be deployed in the new service linking Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian and Tanjung Pelepas with Felixstowe, Rotterdam and Bremerhaven in what amounts to a giant ocean conveyor belt for the world’s busiest trade lane.
Regardless of which of the four Asian ports the cargo is loaded at, the transportation time - from cut-off to cargo availability - is fixed. Daily cut-offs mean that cargo can be shipped immediately after production without the need for storage, Maersk said.
The Danish operator guarantees that cargo at the other end will be available for pick-up on the agreed date and to back that guarantee, compensation payments will be made to shippers for any cargo that does not arrive as scheduled.
“We set out to design a service that takes the stress out of our customers’ lives, to change shipping from the weakest to the strongest link in the supply chain. Shipping is only around 2% of our customers’ total cost and yet our unreliability has, until now, forced them to shape their production plans and inventory around it,” said Maersk Line CEO, Eivind Kolding.
Kolding said as a general rule, shipping lines serving the Asia-North Europe trade are unreliable, in effect providing customers with an uncontrollable conveyor belt. 44% of all containers are late; 11% are more than two days late; and as much as 8% are more than eight days late.
“The lack of on-time delivery costs our customers large sums of money because it makes shipping more of an art than a science. Companies have to make up for an unreliable supply chain; they are forced to build a buffer in their supply chains and lose income when goods are not on time,” he said.
Maersk said if the Daily Maersk Asia-North Europe experiment proves successful, it will consider expanding it into other trade lanes.
Maersk launches daily Asia-North Europe service
Maersk Line has launched Daily Maersk, a new time-definite container service between four Asian ports and three ports in North Europe.
Maersk said the new service would dramatically change the way container shipping operates as it offers a daily cut-off at the same time every day, seven days a week, always with the same transit time.
Containerised cargo will now be delivered with unprecedented frequency and reliability, it said.
Some 70 vessels will be deployed in the new service linking Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian and Tanjung Pelepas with Felixstowe, Rotterdam and Bremerhaven in what amounts to a giant ocean conveyor belt for the world’s busiest trade lane.
Regardless of which of the four Asian ports the cargo is loaded at, the transportation time - from cut-off to cargo availability - is fixed. Daily cut-offs mean that cargo can be shipped immediately after production without the need for storage, Maersk said.
The Danish operator guarantees that cargo at the other end will be available for pick-up on the agreed date and to back that guarantee, compensation payments will be made to shippers for any cargo that does not arrive as scheduled.
“We set out to design a service that takes the stress out of our customers’ lives, to change shipping from the weakest to the strongest link in the supply chain. Shipping is only around 2% of our customers’ total cost and yet our unreliability has, until now, forced them to shape their production plans and inventory around it,” said Maersk Line CEO, Eivind Kolding.
Kolding said as a general rule, shipping lines serving the Asia-North Europe trade are unreliable, in effect providing customers with an uncontrollable conveyor belt. 44% of all containers are late; 11% are more than two days late; and as much as 8% are more than eight days late.
“The lack of on-time delivery costs our customers large sums of money because it makes shipping more of an art than a science. Companies have to make up for an unreliable supply chain; they are forced to build a buffer in their supply chains and lose income when goods are not on time,” he said.
Maersk said if the Daily Maersk Asia-North Europe experiment proves successful, it will consider expanding it into other trade lanes.
