UAL to serve SA-West Africa market

This week sees the loading of the third vessel in UAL’s recently introduced multipurpose service on the SA-West Africa route. Having established its reputation as a niche breakbulk carrier in the oil and gas industry from Europe and the US Gulf to West Africa, the line has now added an SA-West Africa string. The service will not operate from Europe to South Africa as originally reported in FTW. Several 8-12000-ton multi-purpose vessels will be deployed on the monthly routing loading Durban, Cape Town, Walvis Bay and other ports on inducement, and discharging at Namibe, Lobito, Luanda, Soyo, Cabinda, Malongo, Pointe Noire, Port Gentile, Bata, Malabo, Luba, Douala, Port Harcourt, Lagos, Tema and Takoradi. The line will primarily target breakbulk cargo but will cater for containerised shipments as well. All the vessels are self sustained with heavy lift capacity from 60mt to 250mt, and reefer plugs available. UAL has opened its own office in Cape Town headed up by MD Haakon Rostad. Local agents are Seaclad Maritime, with UAL general manager Ulrik Fischer based in Johannesburg. The UAL Group has its own port facilities in Equatorial Guinea on the Island of Bioko (Malabo) where it has built a port – K5 Oil Centre – which operates as a free zone. “UAL uses this facility as a hub for the surrounding countries, especially for ports in West Africa with long waiting times for bigger vessels,” Fischer told FTW. “While the oil and gas industry is our primary focus, we will naturally be accepting commercial cargo as well.”