Melbourne and Sydney Split From Oct 9 on Maersk Qilin Service
Melbourne and Sydney Split From Oct 9 on Maersk Qilin Service
Executive Summary
Ten sailings, five Melbourne calls and five Sydney calls. Your Australia bookings need a second look.
Overview
Maersk filed a temporary operational adjustment on Sep 21 covering ten sailings, 641S through 650S, on its Qilin service between Asia and Australia. The first one affected is GSL ELIZABETH 641S, due in Shanghai on Oct 9. The rotation is now Shanghai, Hong Kong, then Melbourne or Sydney — and that last leg is where the trouble sits. Here's the thing: Melbourne and Sydney alternate on consecutive sailings, so each port keeps five of the ten calls instead of ten, which is 50% of the previous frequency. Hong Kong was added as a connecting port, with cargo moving between the Qilin and Dragon services where needed.
One port. Half the calls.
That is the whole change.
Key Details
Maersk gives two reasons: prolonged vessel waiting times in Shanghai, and weather-related disruption to operations. Put simply, the berth problem sits at the Chinese end of the string, not the Australian end. When a ship cannot get a berth in Shanghai, the whole rotation slips, and every downstream sailing lands late. Splitting the two Australian calls is one way to buy back a schedule the carrier can actually publish. Maersk did not spell that out in the notice, but anyone who has run cargo through East China will recognise the pattern — you fix the string where it breaks, not where it ends.
Watch the berth, not the weather.
The problem is upstream.
Looking Ahead
The proforma dates in the notice run like this: GSL ELIZABETH 641S, Shanghai Oct 9, Melbourne Oct 28. CAPE SERRAT 642S, Shanghai Oct 16, Sydney Nov 7. AS CAMELLIA 643S, Shanghai Oct 23, Melbourne Nov 11. CAPITAINE BARET 644S, Shanghai Oct 30, Sydney Nov 21. DELOS WAVE 645S, Shanghai Nov 6, Melbourne Nov 25. Voyages 646S to 650S keep alternating, and the last of them, DELOS WAVE 650S, is due in Shanghai on Dec 11 and reaches Sydney on Jan 2. Your booking screen will show you the Shanghai date. That is not the date your customer is planning around.
Book against arrival.
Not departure.
Implications
Three moves worth making. First, you still have 12 days on the old rotation, so anything that can sail before Oct 9 should sail before Oct 9. Second, do not sit out 2 weeks waiting for a direct Melbourne call — take the Sydney sailing and tranship through Hong Kong on Dragon, and say up front that the transit is longer. Third, quote the transhipment leg as its own line item. Bottom line, if you fold it into the ocean freight, your customer reads it as a rate increase and you lose a week explaining a charge that was never yours.
Do not wait for a fix.
Realistically, this runs to Dec 11.
Market Outlook
For forwarders, the practical move is to re-quote any Australia cargo booked for November and December with the transhipment leg shown separately, and to stop promising a weekly direct call to either Melbourne or Sydney until the next advisory is out.JETWAY Supply Chain is your execution partner on the ground in China — based in Tianjin, licensed as an NVOCC (MOT) and a member of CIFA, FIATA and WCA. We handle special cargo and compliance (dangerous goods, chemicals, batteries) across ocean, air, rail and road, and we pre-check your documents before the box is stuffed so your filing clears the first time. Send us your next booking and we will run the checks above against your sailing date. Request a quote.