PE call adds options on India, Middle East, West Africa service

The French-based shipping line, CMA CGM, is adding calls at Port Elizabeth on the eastbound leg of its fixed-day, weekly Midas service – which currently links the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East and West Africa. The first PE call will be by the MV Samaria on Voyage MU530E, with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) of May 28.This, said CMA CGM, will give exporters the opportunity to ship cargoes to the Indian and Middle East/Gulf markets. The direct call at Mundra in India allows access to North India destinations from Gujarat to Delhi, while the call at Jebel Ali allows Mid-East transhipments on the line’s feeder services to the likes of Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Damman, Jubail, Shukwaokh, Shuaiba and Umm Qasr, and by truck to Dubai. The port rotation will be: Mundra-Khor Fakkan-Jebel Ali-Walvis Bay-Luanda- Pointe Noire-Lome-Douala- Abidjan-Port Elizabeth- Mundra. Talking to FTW, Durbanbased Paul Zunckel, GM sales and marketing for the line, says that an attraction of PE is that it is a big citrus fruit exit port, and the Middle East is a big citrus receiving area. “So we are obviously concentrating a lot on reefers in the forthcoming citrus fruit export season (from April to end-September)”, he added. The new call will also help to take some of the pressure off the Port of Durban, where port construction work on the north quay of Durban container terminal (DCT) Pier 2 will adversely impact on citrus fruit exports. However, said Zunckel, for the more northerly citrus fruit farms in Zululand and Mpumalanga, the attraction of moving their export crops through PE will largely depend on whether Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) agrees to equalise the rail rates to PE with those to Durban. Discussions have already been held between the shipping lines and TFR, but no agreement has yet been reached on this issue, Zunckel added.