German shipping giant anchors EA business with new routes

German multinational Hapag-Lloyd will next month introduce four direct connections from the Port of Mombasa to the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and India.

Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s sixth largest shipping company, made the announcement last week with the move coming barely four months after launching its services in East Africa with a weekly line from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

“After a successful start, this service will be expanded in September with a weekly connection to and from Nhava Sheva (India), Mundra (India), Khor Fakkan (UAE), Jebel Ali (UAE), Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. The so called East Africa Service 2 (EAS2) will replace the current EAS service and directly link the Arabian Gulf and the West Coast of India with East Africa,” said Dheeraj Bhatia, Hapag-Lloyd managing director Africa, Middle East and Indian subcontinent on Friday.

Other major shipping companies docking at the Port of Mombasa include Maersk Line, CMA-CGM lines, Mediterranean Shipping company, China Ocean Shipping company (COSCO) and Evergreen Shipping line.

Hapag-Lloyd has a transport capacity of 1.6 million TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units) and a container stock of more than 2.3 million TEUs.

It has 120 liner services connecting more than 600 ports on all the continents.

With improvements at the port thanks to new equipment among other changes, the Kenya Ports Authority plans to increase its cargo handling capacity from the current 30 million tonnes to 45 million tones by 2022.