ALAN PEAT THE JAPANESE shipping line Mitsui OSK Line (MOL) is to launch two new services in December – one linking India, Pakistan, the Middle East, East Africa and SA, the other an upgrade of its Hong Kong, Indian Ocean Islands, SA and West Africa service. The first is a joint-venture - with MOL, Singapore’s Pacific International Line (PIL) and Mauritius-based Laurel Navigation Ltd. (LNL) each providing two 850 TEU containerships – and offering a fixed-day, weekly service. The port rotation will be: Karachi, Nhava Sheva, Jebel Ali, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, Karachi – with Durban acting as a hub port. According to MOL, the cargo flow between SA, the East Coast South America (ECSA), West Africa and India/Pakistan, continues to be active. At present, MOL is transhipping cargoes bound for these areas at Singapore but, with space there proving tight, deliveries are often delayed. To overcome this, the line has decided to tranship South American and West African cargoes at Durban instead of Singapore by launching the joint service with PIL and LNL. It said that the cargo space supply would be more stable and transit times shorter. The second December move is an upgrade of its Asia-SA-West Africa (WA1) liner service – replacing its joint service with P&O Nedlloyd. With an every 10-days sailing, MOL will be using seven 1 800-TEU ships on a port rotation of: Hong Kong, Singapore, Port Louis, Tamatave, Durban, Tema, Lagos, Lome, Durban, Port Louis, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong (Tamatave and Colombo are yet to be confirmed). MOL said that it was currently operating a joint weekly service with PONL with 10 containerships on the route, but that this service’s operational schedule was being disrupted frequently due to the chronic congestion at West African ports. But, operated with MOL’s own ships, the new service schedule will be more stable, said the line. At the same time, the WA1 service will once again link the Indian Ocean island ports with SA, as well as Asia and Europe. The transit times will be shorter and the space supply will become more stable, MOL said, and the upgrade will include additional capacity to meet what it described as a “steadily growing” market in West Africa as well as offering a faster transit time between SA and Europe. This new service will be supplemented by the current WA3 service – which continues as a slot charter service from PIL – with the line operating six 1 300 TEU vessels on a port rotation from the first week of December of: Singapore, Cape Town, Cotonou, Lagos, Abidjan, Douala, Durban, Singapore. The combination of the two West Africa loops offers calls at all the major ports in West Africa, and increases calls at Lagos from four to six per month.
