In one of the most interesting shipping developments of the new year, the joint-venture owners of breakbulk and FCL specialist carrier, United Africa Feeder Line (UAFL), are closing in on selling the service for an undisclosed sum to a Luxembourg investment fund.
This emerged after ocean cargo data aggregator, Alphaliner, reported that the owners of UAFL, Deutsche Africa Linien (DAL), and purpose-built tanker company, John T Essberger Group (JTE), were in the final stages of selling UAFL.
The line, consisting of five vessels ranging in size from 600 to 2 268 TEUs, was founded in 2000 and bought by DAL in 2011.
It continued to be run as an independent commercial entity with its own management and own brand, UAFL’s website states.
According to Antwerp shipping agency De Keyser Thornton Group, UAFL is run from its hub of the Port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates.
However, it is through its transhipment hub in the Port of Mutsamudu on the island of Anjouan that UAFL has managed to strategically strengthen its prominence as a popular Indian Ocean carrier linking India and the Far East with African east coast ports in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mayotte and the Comoros.
