In late September 2016, the port of Rotterdam will be added to South Africa Europe Container Service (SAECS), becoming the port with the shortest transit times to South Africa.
The upgraded service will make Rotterdam both the first and last port of call on this route and will shorten the service’s Rotterdam-South Africa transit times by six days. Under the new schedule, it will take SAECS’ vessels 18 days to travel to Cape Town.
“This is a welcome development. It will make Rotterdam the port with the shortest transit times to South Africa. After Rotterdam, SAECS’ ships only make one more stopover: the Spanish port of Algeciras,” Matthijs van Doorn, the Port of Rotterdam’s Logistics Manager, said.
SAECS is a collaboration between the shipping companies Safmarine, Mitsui OSK Lines, Deutsche Afrika-Linien and Maersk Line which maintains a scheduled service between Europe and South Africa.
On SAECS’ southbound route, Rotterdam is the final port of call in Western Europe before the vessels travel to Africa. On the itinerary starting in Africa, Rotterdam is the first port of call in Europe.
Other ports of call within the SAECS service include Ngura, Durban and Port Elizabeth in South Africa and Bremenhaven and London Gateway in Europe.