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DP World Chennai welcomes Maersk Lines ICON service
Posted on: 17/Mar/2011 12:16:23 AM
Chennai Container Terminal welcomed its newest addition to the list of mainline services calling at the terminal this morning. In a small inauguration ceremony held on board the mv Maersk Miami, Shri.Atulya Misra – IAS, Chairman,Chennai Port Trust, welcomed Maersk Line’s first direct service to North Europe in the company of Mr Ennarasu Karunesan (CEO, DP world Chennai), Mr Santosh Kumar Singh (General Manager-Sales Maersk Line) and other members from ChPT, DP World Chennai and Maersk Line.
Mr Rizwan Soomar, Managing Director, Maersk Line (India & Sri Lanka) said, ”With excellent transit times from Chennai (India) to Felixstowe (UK), this is a fast poduct and well suited for all our customers in time sensitive industries like apparel and retail. This also addresses our customer’s long standing demand for a direct product from South India to Europe which helps in achieving better efficiency in supply chains and reducing overheads for our customers.”
Mr.Ennarasu Karunesan, Director & CEO, DP World Chennai thanked Maersk Line for having unwavering faith and confidence in the services provided by DP World Chennai, and said that “With the launch of the ICON Service, Maersk Line will now have 2 direct services calling at CCT. Setting the benchmarks for productivity for South/East India, DP World Chennai is soon consolidating itself as the preferred gateway for the EXIM trade fraternity”
The need to faster connectivity to the north Europe base ports, is growing in South India especially will the increase in export of major commodities like Tobacco, Garments, Granite, Seafood, Mango Pulp, Footwear, Sugar & Made ups. The India Colombo North Europe (ICON) service will link South & East India to North Europe and will provide the trade with direct, dedicated and faster transit times to North Europe. With the launch of the ICON Service, big retail giants like Debenhams, Tesco and Carrefour etc will now have a faster and reliable connection for importing garments and textiles from one of the world’s largest sourcing area that exists in South Asia. It would take only 20 days for the cargo leaving Chennai to reach Zeebrugge, 21 days to Felixstowe, in UK, 23 days to Rotterdam and 24 days to. Direct connectivity from Chennai will also benefit the exporters who will now see considerable cost and time savings due to the elimination of transhipment and extra handling at Colombo. On the eastbound trip the service will help the importers of automobiles, chemicals, waste paper and scrap metal for re processing, in Indian subcontinent.
The ICON service will deploy 7 x 3400 TEU capacity vessels and operate with the following port rotation: Chennai - Colombo - Salalah - Zeebrugge - Felixstowe - Rotterdam - Bremerhaven - Salalah - Colombo - Chennai.
