JUST a fortnight after announcing changes to its Southern Star service between South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand Maersk Line has advised of further diversions. 

On 22 July the service’s Maersk Rio India made the first of a series of formal fortnightly northbound Melbourne calls en route to Tanjung Pelepas, dubbed ‘Melbourne Star’, aimed at meeting Q3 export demand.

The carrier has now advised that Southern Star’s Maersk Rio Negro 433S/436N and Maersk Fortaleza 442S/445N will both perform a southbound Fremantle inducement call. “This contingency has been secured to continue to protect capacity and services for import cargo to Fremantle following the earlier schedule slides on the Western Australia Connect service,” Maersk said.

Announced on 24 July, the slide sees the Singapore departure of Maersk Yellowstone’s V35S delayed from 24 August to 31 August, with subsequent sailings of Xiamen and MH Green similarly cascaded.

To avoid further schedule impact to the Southern Star service following the Fremantle inducements Maersk Rio Negro 433S/436N and Maersk Fortaleza 442S/445N will also omit Singapore and Port Botany calls.

Southbound capacity into Fremantle is reported to be very tight, with cargo being rolled at Singapore and Port Klang, although Maersk boasts that the port its affiliate APM Terminal operates, Tanjung Pelepas, has enjoyed a record month in July with no backlog.

The Fremantle situation is unlikely to resolve in the short term, thanks to MSC’s imminent withdrawal of the weekly Capricorn service.

Separately, the consortium of Maersk, ANL, Hapag-Lloyd and ONE which operate the GAC/AAX-S/SAL/AU1 service has notified shippers that due to weather delays and congestion in Port Botany and to avoid further disruption to the service, members have agreed Sydney Express 427S/430N will change rotation to now call Port Adelaide 4-6 August, Port Botany 8-10 August and Fremantle 16-18 August.

Delays in SE Asia and on the coast saw three of the service’s seven ships call Melbourne over a three-day period, a bunching exacerbated when the ONE-operated Conti Annapurna was detained by AMSA for a week over defective container-securing arrangements.

In the consortium’s EAC/AAX-E/SEA/AU2 service the Maersk-chartered GSL Christel Elisabeth is due to phase out in Singapore c.10 September to be replaced in Tanjung Pelepas a day later by Leonidio.