Maersk to launch express China service

IN AN already crowded market Maersk Line will introduce a speedy, limited rotation China-Australia service in late July, just in time for traditional peak import season.

The service, designated Qilin, will reportedly operate with 2,800-3,500 TEU ships on the very simple rotation of Shanghai, Port Botany, Melbourne, Shanghai with the first voyage departing 24 July.

DCN understands that while Qilin will complement Maersk’s existing weekly Dragon North & East Asia-Australia, shared with Ocean Network Express, all space on the new service will be marketed by Maersk.

“The launch of this premium product offers significantly improved transit times from Shanghai to Sydney and Melbourne and will better support your supply chain needs into these markets,” Maersk says in a market flyer.

“This new service will be launched to complement our existing Dragon service which today provides best-in-class reliability in this market. The Dragon service will continue to operate as it does today.”

Maersk stresses the increased capacity and faster transits Qilin will bring, with Shanghai-Sydney 14 days, Shanghai-Melbourne 17 days, Sydney-Shanghai 19 days and Melbourne-Shanghai 15 days. This compares to Dragon’s 18, 21, 28 and 24 days respectively.

The move comes at an intriguing time, with MSC moving to speed up its Wallaby service and rumours of further structural changes to the Swiss carrier’s China portfolio to come, and suggestions at least one other consortium is proposing product revisions.

It also comes against the backdrop of DCN reporting yesterday that spot rates between Shanghai and Sydney have risen by a cumulative 68% since the middle of March, propelled by judicious blankings, congestion- and weather-related schedule disruptions and unexpected demand.

DCN has now been told some carriers have been advising selected contract clients that their allocated slots have been reduced to 80% of that agreed in what one source described as “typical carrier behaviour when the gap between FAK spots and contract rates gets too big.”

“Most contracts will have been written in early March when rates were USD 600-700/TEU, whereas they’re now pushing double that and still rising. Lines will want to maximise returns by allocating as much space per vessel as they can to spot cargo.

“And while that seems dodgy it’s the way the game is played and every knows that. The other side is the forwarders and BCOs who lock in space they never fill.”