The network redesign by Maersk is primarily aimed at improving speed to market, providing higher predictability and offering more flexibility to customers’ supply chains. Further, redesigning the network will also bring more resilience to the customers’ supply chains, protecting them better from operational challenges that arise out of contingencies.

Mads Skov-Hansen, head of Liner Operations Cluster, Maersk West & Central Asia, says: “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.”

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Just Style reported on shipping problems linked to the pandemic here.

Improved speed to market

  • The new ME4 service will offer a faster transit between Doha and North Europe, thus improving speed to market by up to five days and by up to six days from Jebel Ali to West Africa for majority of customers.
  • The ME3 service connecting fresh produce exporters from Pakistan to Russia will see an improvement in what are already ‘best-in-industry’ transit times. This will further reduce wastage of the fresh produce by maintaining its integrity through end-to-end cold chain logistics offered by Maersk in Pakistan.
  • The FI3 service will change from fortnightly to weekly giving frequent options for importers getting cargo from Far East into North India.

Improved predictability and flexibility

  • The ME7 service will connect South India’s lifestyle, retail and automotive manufacturing sector directly to Europe. The cargo will thus flow smoothly without getting affected by unforeseen delays in case of congestions.
  • The ME7 service will also provide a direct and regular rotation between the hubs of Colombo and Salalah, thus letting customers have a more flexible option of moving their cargo.
  • The new FI4 service, that combines previous Jade Express and Chennai Express, will connect South East Asia with India and Pakistan on a single direct service.
  • As a part of redesigning of the network, the ME6 service as well as transhipment on AE1 at Colombo will be discontinued. Customers will continue to have the options to connect their cargo on a full array of services calling West & Central Asia. The network changes will be implemented in a phased manner and will not affect the total deployed capacity in the global network.

Bhavan Vempati, regional head of Ocean Management, Maersk West & Central Asia, adds: “Our customers deserve a predictable service that will allow them to plan their supply chains better. With our redesigned ocean network, we are not only providing our customers with predictability and resilience, but also greater speed to market allowing them optimise their inventories and operations to meet the surge in demand with a competitive edge.”