The Hindu Business Line : Changes in CSI service

The CSI service till recently was operated jointly by Evergreen Marine, Samudera Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine. Yang Ming Line is replacing Hyundai. This is because Hyundai has parted the company of Evergreen and Samudera to joint hands with Heung-A Shipping, active in India since 2003 to jointly offer the express service connecting North China and Hong Kong to India, the port rotation being Shanghai-Ningbo-Hong Kong - Singapore- Nhava Sheva - Singapore-Shanghai.

The reconstituted consortium will operate the CSI service with five vessels, each of the capacity of 1,200 teus as against the earlier 1,000-capacity vessels.

Samudera Shipping will offer three of the vessels with Evergreen and Yang Ming each offering one vessel.

The other change in the service is to drop the port call at Bangkok while adding Ningbo and Colombo at the same time.

This is because Colombo is connected by feeder services to several ports on both east and west coasts of India.

The new port rotation of the CSI service thus will be: Shanghai-Ningbo-Hong Kong- Singapore-Colombo-Nhava Sheva-Singapore-Johore-Laem Chabang-Hong Kong-Shanghai.

CIMEX service

Meanwhile, CMA CGM, the world's third largest container shipping line, has decided to launch its own service linking Far East with West Asia via India, according to shipping industry sources.

The proposed weekly express service, to be named CIMEX (China, India Middle East Express), will replace the present weekly Super Galex service operated by CMA CGM in partnership with CSVA Norasia, Gold Star and Hanjin connecting Far East with Indian sub-continent and West Asia. The proposed CIMEX service will operate five container ships with a capacity of 2,500 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent unit) each and have the following port rotation: Ningbo-Shanghai-Chiwan-Port Kelang-Nhava Sheva-Jebel Ali-Khorfakkan-Bandar Abbas-Port Kelang-Shanghai, the sources said.