The Hindu Business Line : Cosco Container service to link Nhava Sheva

New Venture
To be known as China Straits India service, it will start from Shanghai on August 21.
COSCON owns 127 container vessels totalling 3,20,000 TEUs.
The US and European trunk routes are proposed to be served by high-capacity vessels

Kolkata , Aug. 15

Cosco Container Lines Co Ltd (COSCON), the Shanghai-based major container operator, will shortly launch a new container service connecting various Chinese and South East Asian ports with Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) of Jawaharlal Nehru port, according to shipping industry sources.

To be known as China Straits India service, the proposed service will start from Shanghai on August 21 and `Uni Patriot', a 1,200-TEU vessel, will be deployed for the maiden voyage, it is learnt.

The port rotation will be: Shanghai— Ningbo— Hong Kong— Singapore— Colombo— NSICT— Singapore— Pasir Gudang— Laem Chabang— Hong Kong— Shanghai.

COSCON owns 127 container vessels totalling 3,20,000 TEUs. In next two years, there will be more acquisitions, with capacity going up to 4,50,000 TEUS and by 2010 to 8,00,000 TEUs.

Serving well

The US and European trunk routes are proposed to be served by high-capacity vessels, ranging from 5,400 TEUs to 8,200 TEUs, while the other routes by smaller-capacity vessels, ranging from 4,800 TEUs to 5,200 TEUs. Currently, COSCON serves over 60 international shipping routes covering over 100 principal ports in 30 countries and regions across the world.

It might be recalled that in April this year, Yang Ming Line (UK) replaced Hyundai Merchant Marine in the consortium that also operated China-Straits-India service, the other partners of the consortium being Evergreen Marine Corporation and Samudera Shipping Line.

Five vessels each of 1,200 TEUs capacity were deployed, three of them were offered by Samudera Shipping and one each by Evergreen and YML. The port rotation was: Shangahai — Ningbo — Hong Kong — Singapore — Colombo — NSICT — Singapore — Johore— Laem Chabang— Hong Kong— Shanghai.

Prior to YML joining the consortium when Hyundai was there, Bangkok was included on the port rotation but Ningbo and Colombo were not. Also, smaller capacity vessels of 1,000 TEUs were deployed on the route.