MAERSK Line has revamped its Europe-East Coast of South America services, with the changes coming into effect this month.

The carrier is offering a new 'Samba' service that links the East Coast of South America to North Europe and will deploy high reefer ships ranging in size from 2,800-3,200 TEU.

Its 'L Class' service will be operated on a shorter port rotation that will turn in Algeciras. The service will continue using 4,500-TEU ships.

In addition, Maersk Line will continue to offer two other Europe-East Coast South America services through slot buying on the MSC's North Europe-East Coast South America service, called the Samex, and its Mediterranean-East Coast South America service, named Apolo, reports AXS-Alphaliner news.

This means that the carrier is providing four weekly sailings from the East Coast of South America to Europe and the Mediterranean.

Maersk Line will also call at the Colombian port of Santa Marta on its Europe-West Coast South America service, known as Ecubex, hence removing it from its Europe-Caribbean CRX service, the report said.

In other news, the 10,062-TEU ZIM Antwerp is expected to start calling at the Port of Kingston, while the 8,034-TEU MSC Rita will make port of calls at New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston and the Bahamas hub of Freeport.

"While the ZIM Antwerp is performing a Shenzhen-Kingston-Shenzhen rotation to evacuate containers (both empties and laden boxes), the MSC Rita is to join the MSC's Asia-USEC 'Golden Gate' pendulum via the Suez Canal (GGS), which is until now run with ships of less than 6,700 TEU," the report said.