New line rumoured on Far East - SA route

ALAN PEAT A RUMOUR about a new service planned for an October launch on the Far East-SA trade has flooded the shipping industry. The story doing the rounds is in surprising detail, but FTW could not acquire any official information from various parties named to be part of the new deal - which includes an agency in SA and a new shipping line. It is, according to one shipping line executive, planned to be a three cellular vessel fleet initially plying the route - with the intention of extending this with two further vessels to then cover the SA-South America leg. Although no frequency is revealed, another authoritative shipping source calculated that the initial fleet size would only allow a two-weekly service - “at the best”. And this only allowing for one port of call at either end of the new service. The motivation for the additional South American leg, FTW was told, is that it is currently at an attractively high level. The South America-Far East trade at the moment is “pumping like mad” said the shipping executive, with rates “way up”. Hong Kong and Taiwan are named to be two sources of the rumour.