Regional shipping line Safmarine has announced that it is making changes to rationalise its Prime 2 service – which connects the south and east of the Indian subcontinent with north Europe – into that of Maersk's Asia-Europe network, effective February 2012.
'The restructuring decision affecting the trade between the Far East and the Indian subcontinent to northern Europe will result in improved port coverage and reliability of Safmarine's services out of South India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,' said Kris Van Den Brande, trade director at Safmarine,
'Our customers in the Indian subcontinent will benefit from improved transit times on the AE7 service's new direct call in Colombo (transit time between Colombo and north Europe will improve by two to three days), while Safmarine's northern Europe export customers to the Indian subcontinent will be covered by a direct call in Colombo (on the AE6 service).
'These changes aim to help establish a more balanced supply/demand scenario within the Far East to north Europe trade,' he added.