Indian Subcontinent - Europe Sector Gets a Boost

K-Line announced a major breakthrough achieved by two of the major competing consortia, the IES and the IEX, operating on the Indian sub-continent - Europe sector. 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 sub-continent - Europe sector. The breakthrough was achieved during the meeting held between the IES and the IEX consortia on 09.11.2001 at Shekhou for framing the tonnage rationalisation programme.

Partners of the IES consortium viz. Shipping Corporation of India, Zim Lines of Haifa and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp, of Taipei and in the IEX consortium Viz. 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 of launching a new service "Indian Subcontinent Europe Service ( ISE Service )", offering trade, weekly sailings from Colombo and Nhava Sheva ( JNP ) with the calls at Port Said, Barcelona, Felixtowe, Hamburg, Rotterdam. On the return the vessels will call Port Said before Colombo. Thus, the new service will be offerring 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-C. The service will also cover Central and East Mediterranean ports from Port Said, using the efficient feeder network out of Port Said.

Thus the the port rotation will be Colombo(Sun-Tue) / Nhava Sheva (JNPT)(Thu-Sat) / Port Said(Sun-Mon) / Barcelona(Fri-Fri) / Felixtowe(Wed-Thu) / Hamburg(Fri-Sat) / Rotterdam(Mon-Tue) / Port Said(Wed-Thu) / Colombo(Sun).

The new service will be flagged off from Colombo with the first sailing commencing on the 6th January 2002 from Colombo, with MV Rainbow Bridge. Seven ships of approximately 2,600 TEU size will be deployed in the service, with all lines contributing one vessel each and the 7th 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.

By launching the "Indian Subcontinent Europe Service (ISES), all of the partners would be reiterating their commitment to providing quality service at affordable cost to the shippers, while also faster and bigger tonnage together with the speed and reliability of a direct service.