Polaris Shipping becomes Zim South Africa - Zim Line strengthens fleet

ALAN PEAT
FEBRUARY 15 saw a change of name for the ship’s agency, Polaris Shipping. It’s new trading name is Zim Integrated Shipping Services of Southern Africa – which can be abbreviated to Zim Southern Africa if you want to catch a breath saying the new name, said MD Rhett van Zyl.
It’s all a part of a worldwide strengthening of the Zim brand name, he added, and a lot of agents previously trading under other names have joined the new stable.
Also, the recent opening of a Zim district office in Johannesburg is another local example of this plan.
It’s also accompanied by a significant strengthening of the shipping line’s fleet, as it adds a number of 11 000-TEU capacity vessels to an already growing fleet number.
Zim currently occupies 15th place in the world’s Top 100 container operators – with 98 ships (either owned or chartered) carrying a total capacity of 241 951-TEUs.
According to AXL-Liner, in its December 2006 figures, the line has 29 new vessels on the orderbook, due to increase its TEU-capacity by 168 272 – a capacity growth of 69.50%.
This would give Zim the ability to carry 410 223-TEUs – and place it firmly in 12th spot in the container line league.
Van Zyl could add nothing new about the extension of the already established Europe to West Africa service on to SA.
“Under present conditions,” he told FTW, “we could expect an average delay in Durban of about 70-hours – never mind the 17-18-hours which Sapo broadcasts as the average delay.
“We’ll just have to wait until the upgrade of Pier 1 is finished, and then see whether opening up the SA leg of the Europe-West Africa service would prove viable.”