Service upgrades introduced recently with the advent of EPIC 3, (the Europe, Pakistan, India consortium), linking India, the Middle East and Europe is spurring growth on European routes to the Indian subcontinent, one of the consortium members says.

Contship Containerlines also said the introduction of larger and faster vessels had improved overall schedule reliability between the Indian Subcontinent and North America where it operated services within the Indamex consortium.

A series of executive appointments throughout the region would strengthen its efforts to attract a greater share of the growing market, Contship said.

The background for the service developments is the burgeoning growth in the region, led by India where industrial output is rising at about 5 per cent annually.

“Now Contship Containerlines with its partners in the EPIC 3 (grouping) has put in place a service pattern to transport this growing trade to Europe from India and other countries in the region,” it said.
EPIC 3 is the latest configuration of lines on the route and does not include operator Safmarine, which decided to pull out of the grouping.

“This gives us scope for growth as we have the possibility to fill the gap left by its departure as well as to attract more of the new traffic to our services,” commented Jeremy Masters, CP Ship’s vice president for the Australasia and Europe/Asia business. Contship Containerlines is one of CP Ship’s several brands.

“The EPIC consortium in its various forms has been serving the region for several years and was a pioneer of the Europe-Middle East-Indian Subcontinent triangle which works by balancing the higher export volumes from Europe to the Middle East with the busier volumes from the Indian subcontinent to Europe,” said Masters.

Contship Containerlines reported it had considerably upgraded its European services recently with 3,500teu vessels introduced last year and priority berthing at ports such as Nhava Sheva (India) and Port Qasim (Saudi Arabia). It claimed that transits on its fixed-day services were amongst the fastest in the market and transshipment possibilities offered shippers flexibility.
It also stressed there were dedicated inland container depots and consolidation facilities to ensure all containers were handled quickly and efficiently.

On the North American network, Indamex members still benefit from having the fastest 21-day service linking the Indian Subcontinent with the North American East Coast.
“Customers are demanding more and more capacity from EPIC 3 and Indamex members,” said Masters.  “The recent regrouping of the lines in EPIC 3 has led the way for expansion of container trade on the route, and a similar development is happening in Indamex with the introduction of APL as a vessel-operating partner.”

Contship has appointed Tony Linden as regional trade director for West Asia in Mumbai.
“This is a new post and it is intended that Linden will coordinate services to West Asia including destinations in the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent,” explained Masters.

“Working with Contship’s long-standing partners in the region, he will develop the West Asia outbound trades for Contship Containerlines and other CP Ships’ brands with particular emphasis on the Eurasia services of which EPIC forms a part, and the Indamex routes to the US,” said Masters.