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ANL
Container Line, the sister company
of CMA-CGM has inaugurating the
first dedicated weekly service to
West Coast of Africa from Port
Klang.
The
1,650 TEUs capacity vessel, ANL
Impala, made her maiden voyage at
Port Klang on September 22, 2001.
The
weekly West Africa service is
mounted by Gold Star Line, China
Shipping Container Line and ANL
Container Line.
Gold
Star has contributed six vessels
while both China Shipping
Container Lines and ANL Container
Line have offered two vessels each
for the new express service.
"The
three partners have formed a
vessel sharing agreement in the
West Africa service and provide
the most comprehensive coverage to
the West Africa coast via the
Indian Ocean. Eastbound ships call
Port Klang on every Thursday and
westbound service calls Port Klang
on every Saturday at Port
Klang," said the CMA-CGM
representative-operations
Malaysia, Kamal Wijayasinghe.
The
consortium members providing on of
the best transit time for this
service which connects a total of
six major ports in Africa,
including Durban in South Africa,
Lagos in Nigeria, Lome in Togo and
Abidjan in Ivory Coast.
“With
a 15 day transit time, we are in
the position to connect Malaysian
shippers and importers in
Durban,” said Kamal.
The
service, which is being operated
with 10 vessels of 1,700 TEUs,
will have port rotation from Ho
Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Laem
Chabang, Port Klang, Colombo,
Re-union, Durban, Lagos, Tema,
Cotonou, Lome, Abidjan, Durban,
Colombo, Port Klang, and Ho Chi
Minh City.
Kamal
also stressed that increasing
number of services from Port Klang
shows the CMA CGM group commitment
to making Port Klang as hub port.
He
added the group plans to deploy
5,500 TEUs bigger capacity
carriers in the French Asia Line (FAL)
service as well as enhancing its
feeder network.
“For
instance our Westport- Indonesia
shuttle service is doing fine and
we are planning to mount an
additional service by early next
month. With the additional carrier
we hope to handle about 500-600
TEUs per month. Currently the
service covers Westport-Jakarta-Semarang
and Surabaya route,” said Kamal.
He
said the dedicated shuttle service
between Port Klang and Thailand
has picked up with the weekly
service offered by Hub line
connecting all the major ports in
Thailand namely Bangkok,
Bangpakong and Laem Chabang.
“The
surge in transshipment traffic
will support our group's move to
deploy bigger capacity carrier in
the FAL service. CMA CGM Balzac is
the first of a series of eighht
post-panamax containership joined
the FAL service in early May this
year. The remaining seven ships
will be phased-in slowly before
end of this year and replacing the
existing nine 4,500 teus ships in
operation in the service,” he
added.
CMA
CGM is also working very closely
with Westport on the priority
berthing arrangement. The line,
which handled 200,000 TEUs last
year, managed to handle 190,000 in
the first eight months of this
year.
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