Direct Canada service gets the thumbs up

A NEW service just launched by
the Canadian CSAL shipping line
gives SA shippers and importers
a new direct seafreight
connection between SA, Canada
and the east coast of the US
(EC-USA).
The Montreal-based line has
launched a monthly roll-on,
roll-off (ro-ro), breakbulk and
container service covering the
ports of Montreal, Baltimore,
Durban, Cape Town, Richards
Bay and Walvis Bay.
The multi-purpose service
handles a variety of cargoes,
from general breakbulk to
heavy-lift and oversized – and
has specialised expertise in
handling the International
Maritime Organisation (IMO)
classes 1 and 7 dangerous cargo.
CSAL has slot-chartered up
to 150-TEUs per vessel to Hapag
Lloyd on the Montreal–Durban–
Cape Town loop.
The line will initially deploy
two 17 500-deadweight (dwt),
multi-purpose, Astrakhan Mark
III type vessels which it intends
to bring up to three in the third
quarter of this year.
Sales, marketing and
operations for CSAL in South
Africa will be managed by
Mitchell Cotts Maritime, a
division of Grindrod.
The service has met with
instant approval from an FTW
reader – a forwarder who is
currently generating more
business to east coast Canada.
“Most of the shipping lines
from SA only offer direct service
into the USA with on-carriage to
Toronto and Montreal from New
York,” he said.
“The potential of now having
a service that would provide
a direct sailing from SA into
Montreal sparked my attention,
as it seemed that this would cut
out a number of the problems in
using services via New York.”