New Africa services extend ro-ro transhipment options

In the latest announcement from the roll-on, roll-off (ro/ro) car carrier, Höegh Autoliners, comes news that it is developing new trades into Africa. These are a monthly service from Middle East and India to Southern Africa and West Africa (known as the MIAF trade) and a monthly service from Far East, Middle East and India to East Africa (called the FEME trade). According to Hoegh’s Africa MD, Per Folkesson, a combination of the MIAF and FEME trades offers connection possibilities to Southern and Western Africa from the Far East. “Looking at the trades in more detail,” he said, “our main load ports for the MIAF service will include Sharjah (UAE) and Mumbai (India) – with the discharge port in Southern Africa at Maputo, and in West Africa at Luanda, Lagos and Tema. “Our main hub port for Southern Africa is Maputo (Mozambique) but we will consider other ports under certain conditions.” These trade routes also present possibilities to load cargo from Southern Africa to Luanda and other West African ports. According to Folkesson, the first vessel in the MIAF service – the Hoegh Shanghai - completed loading in India early January and has an estimated time of arrival (ETA) in Luanda of January 23. In the meantime, the main load ports in the FEME trade will include Tianjin/Xingang and Shanghai (China), Kobe, Kawasaki and Kisarazu (Japan), Sharja (UAE) and Mumbai (India) with discharge ports being Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) and Mombasa (Kenya). “In view of the enormous growth in Angola we have also extended our US East Coast to West Africa service to include Luanda and Tema,” said Folkesson, “with monthly sailings commencing in February 2009. “These services will all be performed by flexible PCTC which can accommodate any type of vehicle as well as high and heavy equipment, static and project cargoes.”