Maersk Opens Direct Cork-Cuba Service
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Monday, April 25, 2016
Danish shipping giant Maersk — the world’s largest container carrier — began its first ever connection between northern European ports and Cuba last Friday, promising the fastest freight transit times between Europe and the Cuban port of Mariel.
Port of Cork has scored a major coup in landing a potentially lucrative spot on the first direct freight shipping service from northern Europe to Cuba since economic sanctions were removed on the Caribbean country, reports Irish Examiner.
The move will enable Irish companies to capitalise on an expected boom resulting from the normalisation of relationships between the United States and Havana.
The service is an expansion of the shipping company’s existing CRX Latin American route, which connects Mexico and Costa Rica directly with Europe. That route, which was reintroduced in 2011, already calls at Cork.
The new port of Cork-Mariel route will boast the fastest transit times in the market, connecting European exporters and importers to Maersk’s network of feeder connections. These include a weekly service to the island’s second biggest city, Santiago de Cuba.
The service will link the ports of Bremerhaven in Germany, Rotterdam, Tilbury in the UK and Cork to Mariel and onto Panama.
In the past month, Maersk has acted on rising demand from Irish-based customers by starting a new direct service between Dublin and Algeciras in Spain.