JANUARY NEXT year sees the launch by Unishipping Paris of a monthly multi-purpose service between South Africa and the UK/North West Continent serving Bilbao, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg (on inducement). Three vessels have been dedicated to the service, the Yuriy Arshevenvskiy, Kapitan Danilkin and Topaz. All are roro/lolo with heavy lift capacity up to 80 tons. They will load from Maputo, Richards Bay, Durban and Cape Town offering capacity for bulk, breakbulk, projects and containers. First sailing will be the Kapitan Danilkin on January 20/25. The line currently operates a monthly bulk, breakbulk and container service to the US Gulf using three Russian ro-ro sister ships. The NWC route has been served on an ad hoc basis until now, but Sastri Naidu, who heads up Unishipping’s Johannesburg-headquartered agency office, told FTW some months ago that he was confident it could be developed into a monthly service.
