Maersk Line announced on November 25, 2011 that it will merge the ICON service with the Asia-Europe ‘Daily Maersk’ network in early 2012 “to rationalise and further optimise our network between Far East and the Indian Subcontinent to North Europe.”
The merger will also help to establish a more balanced supply/demand scenario within the Far East to North Europe trade, the Danish container shipping giant said.
Maersk Line launched the ICON (India Colombo-North Europe) service in February this year to cover South/East India and Sri Lanka to and from North Europe. It deploys seven vessels with capacities of 3,400 TEUs.
The network changes will take effect after the Chinese New Year (early February 2012), and will feature the following ICON services:
- Dedicated feeder link between Chittagong and Tanjung Pelelas, providing access to the ‘Daily Maersk’ network
- AE7 service direct call in Colombo westbound, improving the transit time from Colombo to North Europe by two to three days
- Weekly Chennai feeder via Colombo, improving on-time delivery
Exports from North Europe to Indian Subcontinent, including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, will be covered on the AE6 service which will feature a direct call in Colombo.
These changes will not have any impact on the ‘Daily Maersk’ network nor on the transportation times.
