Maersk Asia/US E.Coast Service to Transit Suez, Not Panama

Maersk Line, will stop using the Panama Canal to transport goods from Asia to the U.S. East Coast as bigger ships make Suez more profitable.

Maersk Line will send through Suez Canal a vessel that can carry as many as 9,000 20-foot boxes at a time, instead of using two 4,500-box-vessels through Panama Canal, Soeren Skou, Maersk Line chief executive officer, informed Bloomberg in Singapore. The last sailing through Panama will be on April 7 and the first service through Suez will be a week later.

The company considers it more cost-effective to send larger ships in this trade via the Suez Canal even though they need to sail a longer distance.

Source: Bloomberg