ports

Premier Alliance cuts Algeciras stops on Asia-Europe routes

The Premier Alliance is eliminating two weekly port calls at Algeciras as part of its Asia-North Europe services restructuring. The changes affect the FE1 and FE3 services, with modifications beginning in June 2026.

On the FE1 service, Le Havre replaces Algeciras as the final European port before returning to Asia, providing direct access from Southeast Asia. The 8,200 teu ONE Hamburg inaugurates the revised service from Laem Chabang on June 6, with the new rotation reading Laem Chabang-Cai Mep-Singapore-Rotterdam-Hamburg-Le Havre-Singapore-Laem Chabang. The 13-vessel FE1 service represents a significant transformation from its previous round-the-world configuration that included three calls in Japan.

The FE3 service, operated with MSC and marketed as Condor, will drop its Algeciras call entirely. Felixstowe now serves as the first European port of call, with optimized routing providing faster transit times to Antwerp and Felixstowe. The 24,000 teu HMM Dublin launches the new FE3 rotation from Qingdao on June 11, with the new port sequence reading Qingdao-Ningbo-Yantian-Singapore-Felixstowe-Antwerp-Hamburg-Qingdao.