A.P. Moller – Maersk (Maersk) has revealed a new ocean shipping service that will commence its rotation in June 2023
The ‘Al Maha’ service will rotate between the ports across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Egypt, and Morocco. As a result of this implementation, Maersk will discontinue the ME3 and ME4 services and serve all customers on those trade routes with the Al Maha service.
Bhavan Vempati, head of regional ocean management, Maersk Indian Subcontinent, Middle East and Africa, commented, “Over the last few years, reliable and predictable supply chains that cater to the evolving consumer behaviours have emerged as the backbone of global trade. Having carefully studied our customers’ requirements arising out of the current market dynamics, we have designed the Al Maha service that will help our customers in driving value out of their supply chains.”
The Al Maha service aims to benefit exporters and importers in the region across different commodities. It will offer loading flexibility from Saudi Eastern Province, enabling customers to reshuffle between Dammam and Jubail, providing ample capacity to cater for customers’ needs and with more reliable schedules allowing better planning of their supply chains. The Al Maha service will offer further connections to European, Middle Eastern and Far Eastern markets for the petrochemical exporters out of Saudi Arabia.
The UAE – West Africa market will also benefit largely from the enhanced capacity of Al Maha service. With the expectation of higher schedule reliability and predictability from this service, customers will be able to plan their supply chains well in advance and, in return, serve their end-users better.
