Safmarine will begin its first direct, fully-containerised shipping service between the Far East, the Arabian Gulf and the Horn of Africa at end-June. The new service will provide direct sailings to the ports of Djibouti and Port Sudan - both currently served via transhipment via either Salalah or Jeddah. The new service will further strengthen Safmarine's focus as a regional specialist in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Sub-Continent. "These emerging markets are regions Safmarine knows well," said Safmarine liner executive, Jan Scheck. "Not only have we been serving them for many decades - both with container and with breakbulk services - but we continue to upgrade our product portfolio in order to better serve these regions." Operated jointly by Safmarine and Maersk Line, the new Horn of Africa service is not expected to significantly increase capacity because the shipping lines will use the same service to cater for Far East/Middle East volumes. Vessels with a nominal capacity of approximately 2,900 TEU will be deployed on the Horn of Africa Service, which will call at Tanjung Pelepas > Jebel Ali > Djibouti > Jeddah > Port Sudan > Djibouti > Tanjung Pelepas. |