Maersk and CMA CGM skip two Port Louis calls on Safari service due to Durban congestion and cyclone disruptions in Mauritius affecting schedules.
Persistent congestion at Durban's Gateway Terminal and lingering operational disruption in Mauritius following a recent cyclone have prompted Maersk and CMA CGM to omit the next two eastbound Port Louis calls on their jointly operated Safari service. The operational adjustment is designed to protect the vessels' scheduled arrival at the key Malaysian transhipment hub of Tanjung Pelepas.
The two carriers determined that current delays at Durban, combined with ongoing berthing backlogs in Port Louis caused by recent severe cyclone weather, would prevent vessels - including the Maersk Stadelhorn and CMA CGM La Scala - from reaching Mauritius within their allocated windows while maintaining their eastbound timetable. Faced with compounding schedule drift across the Indian Ocean, the operators elected to bypass the Mauritian capital on the affected sailings rather than allow delays to cascade into downstream Far East rotations.
To limit the impact on cargo owners, Port Louis and Islands-bound freight already loaded in Durban will be carried through to Tanjung Pelepas, where it will be transhipped onto westbound sailings returning to Mauritius. Meanwhile, Far East cargo originally scheduled to load out of Port Louis will be transferred to alternative services, with revised routings determined by each shipment's final port of discharge and available feeder connections.
The Safari service is a major trade link connecting Southern Africa with the Indian Ocean islands and the Far East. On long-haul, multi-region strings of this nature, schedule reliability depends heavily on vessels adhering strictly to their port berth windows. When disruptions accumulate at early rotation points, carriers frequently elect to drop intermediate calls to recover lost time and preserve downstream network connections.
Cargo owners with shipments moving through Durban or Port Louis on the affected Safari sailings should verify updated transit times and routing details with their carriers, as transhipped cargo via Tanjung Pelepas will experience altered arrival dates. Neither Maersk nor CMA CGM has indicated how long the Durban terminal congestion will persist, or whether additional schedule adjustments will be required on future loops.
