THE world's largest ocean freight carrier, Maersk Line, is revamping its Asia-Middle East service network, starting through March and April.

The restructured network will feature enhanced port coverage on direct services to meet customers' changing demands. No change will add extra capacity.

The Asia-Middle East services will continue to provide extensive port coverage in east and south China, and direct coverage of the Arabian Persian Gulf from north China.

But change will come to the Asia-Arabian Persian Gulf service and the Asia-northwest India and Pakistan service. Coverage of ports in Asia and the Red Sea will be expanded with a new direct service to Salalah and Jeddah.

As a result, the company's Asia-Arabian Persian Gulf ships will call at ports in Japan and transit times to Dammam will be reduced four days. The first vessel to be deployed on this revised FM1 service will be the Maersk Kyrenia scheduled to call at Yokohama on April 2.

On the Asia-northwest India and Pakistan service (FM3), direct South Korea coverage will be introduced. Also transit times on the eastbound leg of this service will be cut. The arrival of the Nedlloyd Oceania on April 3 at Kwangyang will signal the launch of this revised FM3 service.

Finally, the Asia-Red Sea trade will see the start of direct service from east and south China to Salalah and Jeddah on the FM5. This service will provide direct coverage of Yantian and shorten transit times from Shanghai and Ningbo to Salalah and Jeddah by up to seven days. The FM5 will be launched with the first westbound call in Ningbo on March 5.