Europe - SE Asia service
routed via SA
BARELY TWO months after announcing its withdrawal from the South Africa and the Arabian Gulf-Indian continent route, Bank Line made a surprise return last week with the arrival of the 18 663 gt ro-lo vessel Teignbank.
In March the owners, Andrew Weir, announced their decision to withdraw from South Africa because of a lack of base cargo between South Africa, the Arabian Gulf, the Indian sub-continent and East Africa. This brought to an end an uninterrupted connection with South Africa that extended back to the 1920s.
The British shipping company operates a service between the UK and Europe and South East Asia, which until now has been routed through the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. However, with the arrival last week of the Teignbank in Durban, where it loaded a small number of containers and also took bunkers, it turns out that this service will in future operate via South Africa instead. FTW has learned that a second ship, the Speybank, is due to call in Durban in early June, also for cargo and bunkers, and will be followed the following month by a third sister ship, Foylebank.
A spokesman for the newly appointed agents, Freightmarine Shipping, told FTW that Bank Line intended using these three voyages to evaluate whether any advantages could be gained by using the Cape route, because of increasingly high rates for container vessels using the canal.
Several former Bank Line ships with close links to South African ports will continue their visits, albeit under new identities. These include the Ivybank and Meadowbank, which have been renamed Pro Pacifica and Pro Atlantica respectively by their new operators ProLine.
By Terry Hutson
