THE world's top container shipping line are determined to maintain services to Ebola hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea despite seeing a considerable drop in cargo volumes over the past few weeks.
Fear of contamination from exported goods has dampened demand in overseas markets, sending West African economies into tailspins.
Maersk now serves the Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea with a weekly service, WAF7 deploying four 2,500 TEU ships calling at the transshipment hubs of Tangier and Algeciras, then sailing to Monrovia, Conakry, and Freetown, reported Lloyd's List.
Access to ships is tightly controlled and essential visitors are required on arrival at the port to have their temperature taken and wash their hands. That is repeated on arrival at the APM Terminals?facility in Monrovia.
"We have to continue to have our weekly fixed call because we have to ensure a steady supply of food, otherwise the crisis will instantly get worse,?said Maersk Liberia manager Eva Maria Kops.
CMA CGM remains equally committed to serving the region but, like Maersk, has split its services.
It now serves ports in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia with a single service loop that is separate from those that serve countries free of the disease.
Singapore’s Pacific International Lines has suspended its multipurpose vessel service to the Ebola-affected area but still has a feeder ship going every two weeks.
Taiwan's Evergreen Line operates two West African services with vessel-sharing partners, but of the Ebola-infected countries, ships only call at Lagos, where the outbreak appears to have been halted.
Schedule delay or port omissions can largely be attributed to port congestion rather than to the quarantine requirement, Evergreen says.
MOL, another carrier that serves West Africa, but not the countries worst-hit by Ebola, had to make some service adjustments initially, but has now reverted to its original schedule.
When cases were reported in Nigeria, Ivory Coast blocked ships coming from Lagos, so MOL switched its rotation and called at Abidjan first.
But with the outbreak seemingly stopped in Nigeria, MOL has reverted to its original rotation.
Reefership specialist Africa Express Line does not call at any of the countries affected, and so has left its port rotation of Douala, Tema, Abidjan, and Dakar unchanged.
NileDutch, another West Africa specialist, says it has also been unaffected so far.
WORLD SHIPPING
20 October 2014 - 20:31
Shipping lines maintain services in Ebola-hit countries
THE world's top container shipping line are determined to maintain services to Ebola hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea despite seeing a considerable drop in cargo volumes over the past few weeks.
WORLD SHIPPING
20 October 2014 - 20:31
Shipping lines maintain services in Ebola-hit countries
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