Indian Subcontinent - Europe trade gets a boost

We are pleased to announce a major breakthrough achieved by two of the major competing consortia, the IES and the IEX, operating in the Indian Subcontinent - Europe trade. The two consortia have decided to merge their considerable resources and strengths to form a new consortium to emerge as the most significant and powerful operator on the Indian Subcontinent - Europe sector. The breakthrough was achieved during a meeting held between the IES and the IEX consortia on 9 November 2001 in Shekhou for framing the tonnage rationalisation programme.

Partners in the IES consortium, namely Shipping Corporation of India, Zim Lines of Haifa and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp of Taipei, and in the IEX consortium, namely, Evergreen of Taiwan, K Line of Japan and MISC of Malaysia, are already well established in the trade, enjoying substantial market presence and having an enviable market reputation for providing truly customer- oriented services.

The new consortium is pleased to announce their plans regarding the launching of a new service "Indian Subcontinent Europe Service (ISE Service)", offering the trade weekly sailings from Colombo and Nhava Sheva (JNP) with calls at Port Said, Barcelona, Felixstowe, Hamburg and Rotterdam. On the return leg, the vessels will call Port Said before Colombo. Thus, the new service will be offering a direct, faster, stable and dedicated container service from India/Sri Lanka to Europe and back with a transit time of about 18 days from Nhava Sheva (JNP) to UK-Continent. The service will also cover Central and East Mediterranean ports from Port Said, using the efficient feeder network out of Port Said.

Thus the port rotation will be:

Colombo - Nhava Sheva (JNP) - Port Said - Barcelona - Felixstowe - Hamburg - Rotterdam - Port Said - Colombo.

The new service will be flagged off from Colombo with the first sailing commencing on 6 January 2002 from Colombo with Rainbow Bridge. Seven ships, each of approximately 2600TEU, will be deployed in the service with all lines contributing one vessel each and the seventh vessel being shared by SCI and Zim. With the induction of new and bigger vessels in the new service, the earlier services offered by both consortia on the India - Europe sector will be phased out.

In launching the Indian Subcontinent Europe Service (ISE), the lines are introducing faster and bigger vessels, together with the speed and reliability of a direct service. In this way, all of the partners are reiterating their commitment to providing quality service at affordable cost to shippers.