K Line to launch West Africa feeder service

In the midst of the economic doom and gloom comes positive news from Japanese carrier K Line which will launch a new service between Cape Town and West Africa in April. “Essentially it’s a feeder service for cargo from Asia, but it is our intention to enter the local market and offer this weekly service for South African exporters and importers to and from West Africa,” Tim Hastie, K Line Agency manager , told FTW. “West Africa is one of the few areas in the world that is still very active in terms of trade both for imports and exports because of all the oil money,” he said. “K Line was involved in West African trade many years ago but it’s been out of that market for some time now.” According to Hastie the service has been on the drawing boards for some time and the timing of its launch is fortuitous because the line now has the available slots from Asia. Four 1400 teu geared container vessels will be deployed on the route calling at Tema, Cotonou and Lagos with the flexibility to extend this range to meet market demand. Agents for the service are Freightmarine.