Maersk reconfigures Asian network

Global shipping giant Maersk has revealed plans to redesign its ocean network in Western and Central Asia, a service which connects India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world.

The changes are mainly aimed at improving speed to market, providing higher predictability and offering more flexibility to customers’ supply chains, according to a press release. The redesigned network is also hoped to offer greater resilience to customers’ supply chains, protecting them better from operational challenges that arise out of contingencies.

Mads Skov-Hansen, head of liner operations cluster, Maersk West and Central Asia, said:

“Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chains have experienced a perfect storm. The unprecedented scale of operational challenges restricting supply during the pandemic and the strong demand surge in parallel led to significant bottlenecks, capacity issues and unforeseen delays across supply chains. This prompted us to redesign our ocean network to overcome these challenges and make our customers’ supply chains more resilient.”

Changes will include the new ME4 service offering direct coverage between Doha and North Europe, the ME3 service connecting fresh produce exporters from Pakistan to Russia to improve transit times and reduce waste, and the FI3 service changing from fortnightly to weekly giving frequent options for importers getting cargo from Far East into North India.