Agencies
Monday, February 22, 2010

SAFMARINE, Maersk’s African container shipping line, has announced the March 2 commencement of the New Mashariki Express, a weekly six-vessel Far East-to-East Africa service.

Safmarine said it will improve its Far East-East Africa network with faster transit times over the old Mombasa Express service. Mashariki Express transits will be 13 days between Tanjung Pelepas and Mombasa and 21 days from Dar es Salaam to Tanjung Pelepas.

The new service will be launched with the sailing of the fully-geared 2,496-TEU Safmarine Zambezi from Mombasa March 2 to Malaysia’s Tanjung Pelepas.

“The Mashariki Express offers a number of benefits to both importers and exporters,” said Safmarine East Africa manager John Lim.

“Benefits to importers include shorter transit from the Far East to Mombasa and Dar es Salaam with preferred berthing in both Mombasa and Tanjung Pelepas. Exporters benefit from the weekly calls from both Mombasa and Dar es Salaam to Tanjung Pelepas, improved schedule reliability (a buffer has been included to accommodate possible berthing delays) and preferred berthing in Mombasa and Tanjung Pelepas,” said Mr Lim.