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NEW MAINLINE SERVICE: Container vessel Asia Star on her maiden call at the Chennai container terminal.

Chennai , Sept. 28

THE Hong Kong-based Goldstar Line has launched a direct mainline container service from Chennai to West Africa.

Its 1,700-TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) container vessel, Asia Star, made her maiden call on Wednesday at the Chennai Container Terminal (CCT), which is managed by P&O Ports. The ship handled 500 import boxes and 250 export containers, says a CCT press release. This is the sixth mainline service to call at Chennai, said a company official.

Exporters of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, granite and paper would benefit from this service. In the return direction, cargoes such as timber, scrap and raw cashew will come to Chennai.

Asia Star is one of the nine similar size ships plying in the Far East Africa Express (FAX) service, which is expected to call at Chennai once in 10 days. The service will load cargo directly for the West African ports of Reunion, Durban, Tema, Lagos, Cotonou, Lome and Abidjan.

Exporters to these destinations and importers sourcing cargo from these ports can enjoy the benefits of a direct service without any feeder service or transhipment.

The direct service is expected to reduce the transit time by 4-5 days. The routing of the vessel will be Colombo-Chennai-Port Klang-Reunion-Tema-Lagos-Cotonou-Lome-Abidjan-Colombo, says the release.

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