On 30 April, Ebba Maersk made her first port call in Busan, South Korea. The world’s largest vessel, with a capacity of 15,001 TEU, is now including Busan on the AE10 service to North Europe.
A call for the future
Maersk Line believes that Korea has a large potential to grow in the coming years, despite the financial crisis in the Euro-zone. In order to continue to serve Korean exporters with the best possible transportation solution, the decision was made to invest in a Busan call for the AE10 service sailing between Asia and North Europe.
A direct product between Busan and North Europe has been a long-standing wish for customers in Korea. The European market still carries a lot of potential and is where most Korean exporters send their product to. The major commodities exported to North Europe from Korea are motor vehicles, semi-conductors, and mobile and chemical products. Adding a superior direct service gives Maersk Line a strong competitive advantage in the Korean market.
GM Korea, Maersk Line’s largest key client in Korea, says: “With the largest capacity and best service reliability, we can easily handle our size of business. The reliable Daily Maersk product can control our inventory cost effectively with fixed amount of containers without any contingency plan every single week!”
LG Electronics overseas logistics’ Europe team says: “As one of our best partners for ocean transportation, Maersk provides one of the most reliable services with excellent port options such as Gdansk where we can save a lot of inland haulage cost to Poland hinterland. With the AE10 extension to Busan, we are looking for more business opportunities with Maersk in the coming years.”
Speeches and gifts
The first call was joined by dignitaries from Maersk Korea, Busan Port Authority, selected customers and representatives from the press.
On the bridge of Ebba Maersk, Lim Ki Tack, Busan port authority president, presented his welcome speech and a plaque with flowers. He said: “It is a great honour to be on board of Ebba Maersk, the largest container ship in the world, and I would like to convey my deepest appreciation for Maersk, the number one carrier in the world to deploy this giant container vessel to Busan Port.”
Lim Ki Tack was followed by Jeong Ki Cheol from Busan New Port terminal who presented a commemoration gift-glass piece and the flowers to the Captain, Christian E. Rørbeck.
“It was great to be able to celebrate this historic moment together with the Busan Port authority, PNC and our VIP customers in a well-planned ceremony,” says Thomas Lindy Sorensen, Maersk Line Korea Cluster Top. “Furthermore, we had a good opportunity to discuss the implications of future demands on container industry business and handling of larger vessel with the port authority and terminal top management in a constructive and positive dialogue.”