Maruba all set to 'go solo'

27 Dec 2009

Source:CI Online

South American ocean carrier Maruba is all set to go-it-alone in the New Year and set up an independent liner service to Europe. This is very much against the trend being followed by most of the world's major carriers of consolidation and comes despite the Argentine carrier's well documented financial woes.

And managers at Maruba - which is one of only three liner carriers, along with Chileans CSAV and CCNI, in the entire continent operating in the deepsea trades - say that they are looking at a number of options for this service, but the favoured option is a regular service into the Mediterranean with transhipment for northern Europe at Tangier, or possibly Las Palmas. Claudio de Michelis, the key co-ordinator of liner services for Maruba, told CI eXpress: 'We are getting back to basics and the old way we used to work, with independent services.

'We hope to deploy four or five ships, of between 2,000 TEU and 2,500 TEU, maybe five, on this service and then tranship from, say, Las Palmas, to northern Europe using a feeder service. Maruba needs to look after its loyal customer base and we hope to start this service by February.'

But this 'back to basics, independent' philosophy does not sit well with industry analysts and one London based consultant told CI eXpress, on condition of anonymity: 'In recent months many carriers have set up joint services to take out capacity and try and push rates up so this move by Maruba is a big surprise. It is very much going against the trend and shippers might be wary of using a company going out on a limb like this.'

Meanwhile, there are ongoing talks between Maruba and the socialist Argentine government of Cristina Kirchner - understood to be interested in bailing out the carrier in return for shares in the company. Sources close to Maruba say a breakthrough is 'imminent', possibly before the New Year.