fter recent reports stated that Maersk had put a stop on booking containers from Europe to Asia and the Middle East, Marko Mihajic, responsible for Northern and Eastern Europe, has confirmed that they have resumed booking orders as of today."We can confirm that we are accepting bookings right now. Yes, we are dealing with a challenging situation in the market due to the high demand, but the informal stoppage was a temporary thing that has already been lifted. I would like to clarify that the block wasn't a conscious decision the company had made, but a situation that had occurred because of the extremely high demand for shipments going to the region. These kinds of situations can occur when there is such high demand and space is tight." said Mihajic.
It had been reported that the company had blocked bookings until the 27 of March, but this appears to not be the case.
Unfortunately, we were unable to accept all of the bookings coming in from our customers for a day because there was not enough space on the vessels. We have since then been reviewing our options, to minimise the backlog with the least possible impact on the business of our customers.
"I would like to make clear that this is a general issue affecting all carriers and not just Maersk. It is a wider issue, affecting the trade in general." concluded Mihajic.
For more information:
Marko Mihajic
Maersk
Tel: +48 22 541 42 68
Email: Marko.Mihajic@maersk.com
www.maerskline.com
Freshplaza plans on following up on this story over the next few days to investigate the factors which have contributed to the sudden increase in demand from Europe to Asia.