CSCL and Maersk's MCC soon to launch direct China-Myanmar services

2015-01-22

CHINA Shipping Container Line (CSCL) and Maersk subsidiary MCC Transport are commencing direct services between China and Myanmar later this month to tap into on growing trade between the two Asian nations.

The China state-owned carrier and MCC will use smaller vessels on the service that will be able to avoid transshipment in Singapore or Malaysia, say local media reports.

Eight 1,100 TEU vessels will be deployed by MCC on the Intra-Asia 5 (IA5) service, and four 1,000 TEU vessels from CSCL will operate its Burma Express, said Newark's Journal of Commerce.

According to SeaIntel's Sunday Spotlight, the CSCL service will depart Shanghai then call at Ningbo, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Singapore and Yangon, the capital of Myanmar and take 12 to 14 days.

A spokesman for CSCL said cargo volume between China and Myanmar grew by 30 per cent in the past year to 350,000 TEU. The new link means cargo boxes will be able to remain on vessels that are able to enter Yangon port.

MCC's service will call at Vladivostok (Fish Port), Vladivostok (Dalzavod), Shanghai, Ningbo, Singapore, Port Klang, Yangon, Port Klang, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Kuantan, Sihanoukville, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Busan, Vladivostok (Fish Port).

However, MCC chief executive Tim Wickmann said the direct service was expensive and would generate the highest unit cost per container from China to Singapore and Malaysia, as draught in Myanmar ports constrained to seven or eight metres, stops larger vessels and bars cost-effective larger ships.

"Our hope is customers will appreciate the direct service, and be willing to pay a premium over the transshipment services," he told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

Maersk's logistics unit, Damco, began operations at the first international container freight station in Myanmar last June.

Source from : www.schednet.com

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