Shipping Lines Shuffle Schedules to Limit Delays at Europe’s Congested Ports

19th December 2021

Shipping Lines react to congestion that has led to carriers’ schedules being impossible to maintain and increasing blank sailings. MSC and Maersk have rationalised their northern Europe rotations to improve reliability, with Felixstowe (as above, Afloat's photo of MSC Cordoba) and Rotterdam among those to lose calls. Credit: Jehan Ashmore

Containership carriers are continuing to reorganise their calls to northern Europe in an effort to avoid delays at increasingly congested ports.

The 2M alliance of Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) and Maersk are the latest to amend two of their combined services in an effort to rationalise port calls.

The move will see Felixstowe dropped from the AE1/Shogun service, with Rotterdam picking up a second call on the return leg. The UK port will keep its call on the AE55/Griffin service but a call at Antwerp and a double call at Rotterdam will be replaced by one at Le Havre.

“Due to the congestion issues in ports impacting schedule reliability and causing delays to shipments, MSC has decided to combine the calls at Yantian, Shanghai, Felixstowe and Rotterdam for its Shogun and Griffin services starting from January until further notice,” it said in a customer advisory.

“Consequently, the Shogun service will omit Felixstowe and Shanghai and induce Rotterdam and Yantian, while the Griffin service will omit Rotterdam and Yantian but retain the calls at Felixstowe and Shanghai.”

For further reading, LloydsLoadingList reports.

Published in Ports & Shipping

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Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals.

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