AN EARLIER than planned sailing for the Meva, and the ship sailing to her marks on her first voyage between Durban and the Indian Ocean islands.
That's the story from Alan Schoeman, director of the Durban-based ships agency Seaclad Maritime, talking about his latest agency contract for the Malagasy shipping line, Societe Nationale Malgache de Transports Maritimes (SMTM). Before starting the service, the Madagascar-flagged Meva - a 5 327 ton deadweight, multi-purpose vessel built in 1979 - arrived in Durban for a full refit. But, said Schoeman, this was finished earlier than planned, and we decided to bring her first sailing forward from the beginning of this year to a December departure date. Despite it being the off-peak period of the year for cargo volumes, Schoeman happily reported that the ship sailed full - starting off the scheduled 3-4 weekly run between Durban, Mauritius, Reunion and Madagascar almost a month early.
The service, therefore, has started off on the right note, said Schoeman, sailing in a trade which is now highly competitive. Part of the reasoning for this rather cut-throat scenario on the islands run, he added, is steel manufacturer Iscor now using its own shipping line, MUR, for its steel exports.
Although there is still some steel cargo from other suppliers, Schoeman said,the new Iscor set-up has pulled about 5 000 tons of steel a month out of the trade But, he added, Seaclad was able to find good volumes of products like paper, chemicals, bottles, timber, fertilisers and some containerised cargoes for its new SMTM service.
