The new ocean shipping service aims to provide a quicker and more predictable connection
AP Moller–Maersk (Maersk) will launch a new ocean shipping service, ‘Shaheen Express’ starting from the last week of November 2022, the company announced.
The ‘Shaheen Express’ will rotate between Mundra, Pipavav, Jebel Ali, Dammam, and Jebel Ali and back to Mundra, creating a stable and reliable service for the India-UAE-Saudi Arabia corridor. The new service will primarily aim at addressing rising demand for customers trading between the Indian and the Gulf markets.
“Through our customer conversations, we were able to make a more meaningful forecast around the rising demand and proactively deploy a new service to create a supply of space for this demand,” remarked Bhavan Vempati, Head of Regional Ocean Management, Maersk West & Central Asia.
The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) entered into force in May 2022, which is steadily boosting the volumes of trade between the two countries.
The main commodities moving between these two countries that will benefit from the increased capacity include FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) such as electronics, perishables such as foodstuff, retail goods including textile and apparel, and chemicals.
The ‘Shaheen Express’ will benefit the exporters of the petrochemical sector from the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. It will offer improved transit time and better predictability between Indian ports and Gulf ports as compared to the existing services.
The ‘Shaheen Express’ will include two vessels with a nominal capacity of 1,700 TEUs per week.
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