Argentine container major makes her maiden call

TERRY HUTSON July 1 saw the arrival of Maruba Cathay on her maiden call at Durban, fully laden to her marks with containers from the Far East. Maruba is an Argentine shipping line based in Buenos Aires with worldwide services and is one of the partners in the new SEAS consortium comprising Maruba, CMA-CGM and China Shipping, which operates a container service between the East Coast of South America and the Far East, with a call at Durban on the westward leg. The ten self-geared SEAS vessels each have a capacity for over
2 000 TEUs and berth at Durban’s Pier 1 container terminal, where they enjoy a contracted berthing window that guarantees a berth on arrival, thereby avoiding berthing delays. The new service from China to South Africa and then to South America connects with Maruba’s weekly services with fast transit times to Patagonia, West Coast South America and Central America via the Magellan Strait. From there they complete a round-the-world string across the Pacific Ocean. Maruba has additional connecting services from the East and West coasts of India and South East Asia. General agents for Maruba in South Africa are Durban-based Alpha Shipping Agency, headed up by Duncan Starke and Capt. Richard Brook-Hart. Alpha Shipping is supported on the commercial operations side by Austral Maritime Services in a front office/back office operation.