Maersk Line to drop Chennai-Med-US direct links

DENMARK`s Maersk Line plans to stop making port of calls at Chennai as the Indian port is to be dropped from its MECL 2 service from January, severing its direct links with ports in the Mediterranean and US, in a bid to run the service at a slower speed than at present.
The eastbound call at Jebel Ali is also to be removed from the port rotation, while Jeddah will be added to the MECL 2 westbound. Chennai will be served via Colombo, an Alphaliner weekly newsletter said.
The revised rotation for the MECL 2 will be: Colombo, Salalah, Jeddah, Aqaba, Port Said, Algeciras, New York, Savannah, Houston, Norfolk, Algeciras, Port Said, Djibouti, returning to Colombo.
The service will continue to use 10 ships ranging in size from 4,500-5,000 TEU.