ALAN PEAT IN A comprehensive cross-trade service in Cape Town, the shipping line CMA CGM is offering more than 150 global loading ports and destinations for cargo to-and-from the Western Province marketplace. CMA CGM Shipping Agencies has also appointed ISS Voigt Shipping as its sub-agents in the Mother City – handling operations and the freight desk function. “This allows us to offer a worldwide transhipment network directly to the Cape shipping market,” Pam Yerushalmy, GM of CMA CGM Shipping Agencies, told FTW. Transit speed is maintained with export cargoes shipped on through bills of lading (BoL) on the first carrier out of Cape Town for Europe, where it is fed into CMA CGM’s global services. “A particular strength has developed here,” Yerushalmy added, “with the Caribbean now a prime destination for foodstuffs and beverages from the Cape. “But it also offers a whole range of other alternative destination ports – from Iceland to Toronto.” For imports to the Cape, the reverse procedure is followed – with the cargo brought into transhipment hubs in Europe on the CMA CGM global service network and loaded onto the second carrier bound for Cape Town. Two of South Africa’s other major trades are also served by the line, offering Cape shippers services to-and-from Asia with transhipment in Durban, along with direct CMA CGM connections at the same port for South American imports and exports. “We have also just added another important leg to the cobweb of services we are offering the Cape trading community,” Yerushalmy told FTW. CMA CGM has recently started a new service connecting the Middle East with SA, which will also allows it to market transhipment connections into the Western Cape, and handle the growing traffic between the Arabian Gulf and SA.
