Although the line recorded a small 0.9% increase in the average freight rate in the third quarter of 2014, Lars Mikael Jensen, chief executive of the Asia Pacific region for Maersk said, “It’s clear fundamentally the East – West trades from a rate perspective are not healthy.”
As a result Maersk is reviewing some of its lower rated contracts. “We do see that there are a number of longer term contracts that may not pay their way, so we are looking very hard at our customer portfolio,” Jensen told Seatrade Global.
“We’d love to continue to do business with all of the customers, but there will be certain rate levels that we need to be able to apply.
“The efficiencies carriers are gaining from the bigger ships so far are continuously being passed onto the customers,” he added.
With the network of the 2M vessel sharing agreement (VSA) with Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) being rolled out from the second week of January next year Maersk hopes the larger number of frequencies it will be able to offer will make it more attractive to customers. “We do obviously hope the new network will make it more attractive to get onboard and pay a bit more,” Jensen said.
Customers will start being able to place bookings on the new network in early December.
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