Regional carriers steam in to add more services to lucrative India-Red Sea trade

The latest example is a new call by Singapore-based Pacific International Lines (PIL) from NhavaSheva port for Red Sea loadings.The Red Sea-Gulf-India Service (RGS) is a standalone PIL string with stops at Jebel Ali, Jeddah, Berbera and Djibouti.

PSA Mumbai, also known as BMCT, hosted the MV Kota Nipah on Wednesday 4 Dec to mark the inaugural RGS call as the vessel exchanged some 500 containers.“With a weekly frequency and a robust fleet of three vessels, the RGS service strengthens reginal supply chains and reinforces PSA Mumbai’s position as a key gateway for global trade,” the Singapore-based terminal operator said.

According to a ship agent in NhavaSheva, PIL has plans to add more vessels to the service “to offer a consistent sailing schedule”.

“The service is using vessels in the 2,000-teu range,” the agency source said.

PIL, a predominant Asia-centric liner, has beefed up its network out of India to raise its regional profile. Recently, it began an intra-Asia loop connecting Kolkata port in eastern India to Singapore and China.

“This service also connects customers with a gateway to Singapore for the South-east Asia market, as well as Bangladesh, the east coast of India and Myanmar,” said SurendranMathilagath, GM of Intra-Asia Services at PIL.

“The launch demonstrates PIL’s continued commitment to be a first-mover to meet the needs of the market,” he added.

Regional and feeder lines have been pouring capacity into the “less-crowded” market space created by mainline vessel diversions caused by the lingering Red Sea security issue.X-Press Feeders, SeaLead, Emirates Shipping, KMTC, TS Line, Global Feeder, Unifeedersand CULines are leading this newfound interest on India-Red Sea/Mediterranean trades.

PSA Mumbai, which has surplus container handling capacity, being the newest facility, is a major beneficiary of this evolving trend, and has added a string of weekly calls in recent months. According to available data, the terminal has picked up as many as eight new liner customers this year, expanding its weekly sailings to 25.As a result, PSA saw containership visits from April through November swell to 673, from 553 for the same period last year, data shows.

The premier terminal is also close to commissioning its Phase 2 development, involving a further capacity boost of 2.4m teu, which will, arguably, make it the largest container facility in India.

Combined volumes at NhavaSheva for the April-to-November period were up 13% year on year, to 4.7m teu, the latest port data shows.