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Liner service to India, Pakistan

The Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company SA (MSC) will begin a dedicated liner service between North European and Mediterranean ports to and from Pakistan and India. The service is scheduled to start on March 3, with the sailing of its fir st vessel, MSC Xingang, from Antwerp, followed by MSC Clorinda on March 17 and MSC Laurence on March 31. Accordingly, export sailings from JNPT will begin from the third week of March, with MSC Xingang, according to an MSC release, issued by Samsara Shipping Pvt Ltd, general agents for MSC in India.

Initially, the service will be fortnightly and from May, it is likely to begin a weekly service. The port rotation will be Antwerp, Felixstowe, Valencia, La Spezia, Naples, Piraeus, Karachi and Nhava Sheva. The vessels, with capacity up to 1,500 twenty-f oot equivalent units, will also make direct calls at Port Salalah and Jeddah. MSC will accept cargo from Tuticorin, Cochin and Kandla, with relay at JNPT or Salalah, and at inland container depots and container freight stations all over the country. -- Our Bureau