Norasia using Freeport as Med. hub

Shipping giant CSAV Norasia has started to use Malta Freeport as its Mediterranean hub under a major deal that will see an additional 350,000 containers passing through the freeport annually.

Malta Freeport said it managed to secure this new business in the face of very stiff competition from neighbouring transhipment ports which were presently underutilised.

Three mainliners plus a network of feeder vessels will call on a weekly basis as part of the new venture. These include the Indian/Middle East/Europe Express Service (IMEX Service), which will be calling westbound at Malta Freeport Terminals, and the Mare Nostrum Service, which will be calling both eastbound and westbound and hence deploying two mainline vessels on a weekly basis. The CSAV Rio de Janeiro, on the Mare Nostrum Service, called for the first time last Saturday while CSAV Jura called yesterday on the IMEX Service.

The Mare Nostrum Service will be taking the following schedule: Malta Freeport - Jeddah - Port Kelang - Hong Kong - Xingang - Qingdao - Shanghai - Ningbo - Xiamen - Hong Kong - Chiwan - Port Kelang - Malta Freeport - La Spezia - Genoa - Fos - Barcelona - Valencia and back to Malta Freeport.

The IMEX Service's port rotation will be Malta Freeport - Rotterdam - Hamburg - Felixstowe - Antwerp - Port Said - Jeddah - Jebel Ali - Port Qasim - Nhava Sheva - Mundra - Port Said and back to Malta Freeport.

To complement this business, CSAV will also be operating a feeder network at Malta Freeport. These services will be further increasing its worldwide network connections which will now be totalling 132 ports worldwide, 69 of which are in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.