WITH SOUTHBOUND volumes already up-to-speed, Bolton Maritime's new Black Sea-SA breakbulk service - using the Greek-based KMS Lines' vessels - is now concentrating on developing the northbound sector.
It's only recently that we launched the service, said Bolton Maritime's Alan Ainscow, and it takes time to bed-in in the market. But the level of enquiries now is encouraging, and the northbound voyages are strengthening in volumes. After the early experience of the route - running Black Sea-East Africa-SA-West Africa-Black Sea - the Rumanian port of Constanza has now effectively taken on the role of base port on the Black Sea coast, according to Ainscow. We are virtually there every voyage, he said, with the other calls being a perm of one-or-two out of the ports of Burgas, Varna, Illychevsk, Sevastapol and Odessa. It varies as to where the cargo is. An aim of the new service is also to develop northbound cargo from Southern Africa to the port of Derince in Turkey as a regular call. It seems to me that a lot of people are not getting enough for an inducement to Derince, said Ainscow. But there are a number of 200 and 300 ton parcels out there, and they just need someone to be able to combine them.
The port makes perfect sense for us. It's directly on our Black Sea route. Ainscow's other area of development is into the string of ports along the West African coastline. Of these, the most significant player of these early days is Takoradi, he said. We are getting a lot of enquiries in Durban for cargoes into Takoradi, Ainscow added. What we're aiming for is half a vessel to West Africa, and half for the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
