Providing customers with improved service reliability, predictability and capacity forms the new service backbone.

Maersk announced today that the maritime service "Al Maha" will start rotating in March 2023. The "Al Maha" service will rotate between important ports in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Egypt and Morocco. As a result of this implementation, Maersk will discontinue the ME4 and ME<> services and provide services to all customers on these trade routes through the Al Maha service.

Bhavan Vempati, head of regional marine management for Maersk India Subcontinent, Middle East and Africa, said that reliable and predictable supply chains that meet changing consumer behaviour have become the backbone of global trade over the past few years. After carefully studying the requirements of our customers in the current market dynamics, we have designed Al Maha services to help our customers extract value from their supply chains. "

Al Maha services are designed to benefit the region's different commodity exporters and importers.

Saudi Arabia's petrochemical exports have traditionally faced challenges in terms of cost or capacity, existing shipping options are available. The Al Maha service will provide loading flexibility in the Eastern Saudi Province, enabling customers to reshuffle between Dammam and Jubail, provide sufficient capacity to meet customer needs, and provide more reliable schedules to better plan their supply chains. The Al Maha service will provide petrochemical exporters outside Saudi Arabia with further connectivity to European, Middle Eastern and Far Eastern markets. "

Oman's Vision 2040 focuses on economic diversification, including the creation of a world-class fisheries sector that is ecologically sustainable and a net contributor to the Oman economy. With its enhanced capabilities, the Al Maha service will be well positioned to support the expected growth in Duqm's fish exports. At the same time, it will continue to provide Maersk's customers with unparalleled reliability.

Similarly, the UAE-West Africa market will also benefit greatly from the enhanced capabilities of Al Maha's services. With the expectation of greater schedule reliability and predictability from this service, customers will be able to plan their supply chain in advance and, in return, better serve end users. "

Vempati Bhavan further added: "We remain committed to serving our customers and focused on responding to the needs of their end consumers. We aim to play an important role in the economic growth and development of our customers and the economies in which we operate. "

The Al Maha service will consist of seven vessels with a nominal capacity of 8,500 TEUs per week and follow the lines of Port-Port-said-Jeddah-Selalay-Jebel Ali-Doha-Daman-Jubail-Jebel Ali-Dukum-Selalay-Jeddah-Port-Tangier.

Source: Maersk website