Maersk has announced launching AE77, a weekly Asia – Southern Europe intermodal freight service. The first containers coming from Asia on this new regular service arrived at the port of Vostochny in the Russian Far East on Sealand vessels from China, republic of Korea and Japan and were dispatched by train from the VSC terminal, part of Global Ports, on April 23 to Novorossiysk.
The train carrying 130 TEU with consumer goods and equipment is expected to arrive at the NUTEP terminal, part of Delo Group, early next week. From there, the cargo will be shipped by sea to destinations in Ukraine and Turkey.
Like Maersk’s AE19 intermodal service from Asia to Northern Europe, this new AE77 service from Asia to the Black Sea and the East Mediterranean area uses the TransSiberian route. The largest part of the trip takes place across Siberia using the Russian railways’ infrastructure, arranged in cooperation with the Russian freight forwarder Modul.
The transit time makes 25 to 30 days depending on the destination including 12 days by rail.
“The launch of AE77 is an important milestone in Maersk´s expansion of our transcontinental intermodal offering, combining rail and sea. The new route is an excellent alternative since our customers can be confident about fixed-day arrival and have full flexibility between various delivery options that best match their logistics needs,” explains Zsolt Katona, Head of Maersk Eastern Europe.
Transportation on the AE77 is covered with Maersk regular Bill of Lading and uses Maersk standard booking platform.
Maersk has been operating its first transcontinental service across Russia AE19 using Global Ports’ terminals in Vostochny and St. Petersburg, also in cooperation with Modul, since 2019. Recently, the service frequency has been expanded and an additional vessel has been deployed between Busan and Vostochny.