THE likelihood of delays resulting from terminal construction works on the US East Coast has prompted Maersk Line to swap ports on the OC1 service to/from ANZ.
Just weeks after returning the service to a single string after low Panama Canal water levels saw the operation split into Pacific and Atlantic legs, Maersk will switch south east ECNA calls to Savannah while Charleston’s Wando Welch Terminal is undergoing improvement works, involving toe wall construction, expected to take 10-12 months. WWT is the port’s largest container terminal with a capacity of 2.4 million TEU per annum and handles around 78% of container volume.
The carrier is also temporarily dropping Cristobal from the weekly OC1 rotation due to port congestion driving up waiting times.
The adjusted OC1 rotates in eleven weeks with 11 x 3,100–3,800 TEU vessels calling at Philadelphia, Savannah, Balboa, Tauranga, Port Botany, Melbourne, Timaru, Port Chalmers, Tauranga, Manzanillo, Cartagena, Philadelphia.
The 3,075 TEU Maersk Buton will be the first OC1 ship to follow the updated rotation when it departs Philadelphia southbound on 18 June, making the first Savannah call two days later.
Separately, the OC1 vessel Maersk Innoshima’s arrival in Tauranga on V420S has been delayed until 20 June due to “an operational vessel issue” which will also require the northbound Timaru call on V425N to be omitted. Contingency arrangements for Timaru imports/exports have been made.
