by Manal Barakat, SeaNewsEditor
According to shipping data provider Alphaliner, carrier MSC, the world's largest, recently reassigned most of its megamax vessels from the Asia–North Europe route to the Asia-Mediterranean and Asia–West Africa trades.
The firm reports that the carrier switched its 19,200 to 24,300 TEU containerships to sail on three of its four Far East-Med services, while some of MSC's 24,000+ TEU ships will be re-deployed to the Asia-West Africa route.
Ships averaging around 14,700 TEU will be deployed to serve the Asia–North Europe corridor.
Seaexplorer data shows that 23,656-TEU ship MSC Diletta was deployed on the Africa Express service as of 27 February.
Megamax ships MSC Tessa and MSC Turkiye will also be deployed on this service over the next weeks, moving from an Asia-Europe service.
After leaving the 2M Alliance with Maersk at the beginning of this month, MSC is now operating alone on significant east-west trades.
Analysts claim that the carrier attempts to control capacity and address the market's weaker-than-expected demand across key European ports.
