Mainline container vessel starts services to US ports

Kochi, Jan 6 (UNI) Cochin Port today commenced scheduled weekly mainline container vessel service to major ports in the US.

According to an official release, the service with a total of eight vessels of 2800 TEU capacity would be jointly run by the consortium comprising ZIM line, SCI, Emirates Shipping, OOCL and Italia Maritime (Evergreen).

The port rotation of the service was Colombo-Tuticorin-Kochi-Nava Sheva-Mundra- Barcelona-New York-Norfolk and Charleston.

The first vessel of this service OOCL Melbourne arrived here, release added.

With the commencement of this service, exporters from the hinterland like Coimbatore, Tirupur, Karur, Salem and Bangalore, who normally had to transport the cargo to Tuticorin to connect this service, would now have the benefit of connecting to the same vessel from here.

The transit time to the US East Coast would be reduced by a day as Kochi would be the last port of call in South India.

The service would immensely help time-sensitive cargo such as garments, handloom, coir products and perishable goods, the release added.

UNI