MAERSK's MCC Transport, the Danish shipping giant's intra-Asia unit, will offer direct service between Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand from March 23 by extending its IA-5 Service to China and Japan.

This means additional calls at Shanghai, Osaka, Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya will make the IA-5 the first container service linking Shanghai and Japan directly to Cambodia, reports Alphaliner.

This has been achieved by two adding ships to the IA-5 loop, which has been calling at Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shenzhen-Yantian, Ho Chi Minh City, Sihanoukville and Laem Chabang.

The round voyage of the new IA-5 take four weeks using four ships in the 1,700 TEU range, replacing two vessels of 1,100 TEU and 1,200 TEU respectively.

The extended IA-5 service commences with the sailing of the 1,708-TEU Maersk Wakamatus from Osaka on March 23 to be followed by the sailing of the same size Maersk Wilimington.