The growing India-Red Sea trade continues to see new service additions, as ocean carriers adjust their tonnage deployments to the more-lucrative lane, reports The Loadstar.
PIL
The latest example is a new call by Singapore-based Pacific International Lines (PIL) from Nhava Sheva port for Red Sea loadings.
The Red Sea-Gulf-India Service (RGS) is a standalone PIL string with stops at Jebel Ali, Jeddah, Berbera and Djibouti.
According to a ship agent in Nhava Sheva, PIL has plans to add more vessels to the service “to offer a consistent sailing schedule”.
“The service is using vessels in the 2,000-teu range,” the agency source told The Loadstar.
PIL, a predominant Asia-centric liner, has beefed up its network out of India to raise its regional profile. Recently, it began an intra-Asia loop connecting Kolkata port in eastern India to Singapore and China.
Regional and feeder lines have been pouring capacity into the “less-crowded” market space created by mainline vessel diversions caused by the lingering Red Sea security issue.
X-Press Feeders, SeaLead, Emirates Shipping, KMTC, TS Line, Global Feeder, Unifeeders and CULines are leading this newfound interest on India-Red Sea/Mediterranean trades.
As a result, PSA saw containership visits from April through November swell to 673, from 553 for the same period last year, data shows.
The premier terminal is also close to commissioning its Phase 2 development, involving a further capacity boost of 2.4m teu, which will, arguably, make it the largest container facility in India.
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Source: Loadstar
