SIMIC

To the rescue come ONE and Hapag-Lloyd. "In a nutshell, our East Africa and Asia EAS3 loop will be focusing its service capabilities to connecting Kenya with Asia, while our brand new EAS4 will ensure a direct link between Tanzania with Asia," Hapag-Lloyd said in an advisory.

As port congestion on mainline east-west routes consumes so much capacity, ONE and Hapag-Lloyd have reassessed network coverage.

These two has reacted to shipper pressure to offer a "more reliable service" from Asia to East Africa by splitting their current weekly loop into two services next month, reports London's Loadstar.

"The EA3 with a Mombasa loop (including Qingdao) and the EA4's Dar es Salaam loop will provide greater frequency and a more stable schedule," said ONE.

The EA3 replaces ONE's EAF service and is expected to commence a weekly loop from Qingdao on March 13, with a rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Singapore, Port Kelang, Mombasa, Port Kelang, Singapore, Nansha and back to Qingdao.

The carrier's new EA4 service is to start from Shanghai March 10, with a weekly loop of Ningbo, Nansha, Singapore, Port Kelang, Dar es Salaam, Port Kelang, Singapore and back to Shanghai.