Shipping lines will launch a new service which will connect East Africa with Asia and is expected to start in the next month.
The new weekly product,which will be a joint service of Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express (ONE), Pacific International Lines (PIL) and Gold Star Line (GSL), will have the following rotation:
Shanghai – Ningbo – Nansha – Singapore – Port Kelang – Dar-Es-Salaam – Port Kelang – Singapore – Shanghai
The new service will commence on 13 March and will be offered by a consortium of vessels with an average capacity of 2,200 TEUs.
Meanwhile, the four container carriers will retain their current East Africa Asia service that used to cover both Kenya and Tanzania and it will now offer a dedicated and weekly coverage for the Port of Mombasa in Kenya.
The weekly rotation will have the following structure:
Qingdao – Shanghai – Ningbo – Nansha – Singapore – Port Kelang – Mombasa – Port Kelang – Singapore – Nansha – Qingdao
“Starting March 2022, two East African gateways will feature dedicated services to match the market capacity demands towards major Asian ports. In a nutshell, our current East Africa and Asia, EAS3, will be focusing its service capabilities to connecting Kenya with Asia, while our brand new EAS4 will ensure a direct link between Tanzania with Asia,” commented Hapag-Lloyd.
Tonnie Lim, chief trade officer of PIL, commented, “We at PIL pride ourselves for our good connection between Asia and Africa, and it has been 55 years since we started connecting China to East Africa. We are improving our popular East Africa Service in response to the needs of our customers for additional, direct and faster connections from key ports in Asia to Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.”
