Safmarine is adding two new strings to its services that call at ports in the Far East, South Africa and South America to provide faster transit times and wider port coverage from mid-April.

The changes utilise the joint service offering between Maersk Line, NYK and Hamburg Sued on these trades, a Safmarine statement said.

"By offering additional calls in the Far East and South America, we will be able to offer our Asian and South American customers a better westbound product with the two new strings," said Alex de Bruyn, Safmarine's southern Africa trades executive.

"We will also offer interesting options for South American and South African customers trading with each other," he added.

Once implemented, Safmarine will offer its South African import customers eastbound calls from South America at both Port Elizabeth and Durban on the first string, and a westbound export call to South America from Durban on the second string.

As a result, the new port rotation for String 1 will be: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Sepetiba, Santos, Buenos Aires, Rio Grande, Paranagua, Santos, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

The revised String 2 rotation will be: Nagoya, Yokohama, Busan, Hong Kong, Laem Chabang, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Durban, Santos, Itajai, Santos, Sepetiba, Singapore, Hong Kong and back to Nagoya.