Evergreen Marine Corp., the largest container shipper in Taiwan, will launch new services to the Indian Subcontinent in September, in a bid to strengthen its shipping network between China and the countries in the region.

To offer the new services, Evergreen Marine has teamed up with Wan Hai Lines, another container shipper of Taiwan; China COSCO Shipping Corp.; Japan’s Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K Line), and Singapore-based Pacific International Lines (PIL) to kick off the two new services.

Evergreen Marine said that both services will provide direct calls at Karachi of Pakistan and Mundra of India, from China, and are expected to shorten the current transit time.

In the first service named the Pakistan Mundra Express, the five partners will assign six 4,200 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) vessels to serve the new route, starting from Sept. 4, Evergreen Marine said. TEUs are the measurement of a container’s capacity.

The service will start from China’s Qingdao city, and then proceed to the Chinese cities Shanghai and Ningbo; then Singapore; Port Klang of Malaysia; Karachi in Pakistan; Mundra in India, and Colombo of Sri Lanka, before returning to Port Klang, Singapore and Qingdao, the Taiwanese shipper said.

In the second service coded the Pakistan India Express, the partners will use five 4,200 TEU ships for the route, starting from Sept. 8, Evergreen Marine said.

The vessels in the second service will depart from Jiangyin of China’s Fujian province, and then head to Hong Kong, Nansha and Shekou ports in China’s Guangdong province, Singapore, Port Klang, Colombo, Karachi and Mundra before returning to Port Klang and Jiangyin, Evergreen Marine added.

Evergreen Marine said that the new services are expected to provide customers with efficient shipping service between China and Northwest India, as well as Pakistan.

In addition, the two shipping routes are expected to also expand Evergreen Marine’s global service network by strengthening connectivity through its transshipment hubs in Singapore, Port Klang and Colombo, the shipper said.

Source: CNA