SIMIC

The move reflects the trend for logistic companies and manufacturers trying to gain stronger control over shipments after two years of supply chain disruptions, reports Fort Lauderdale's Maritime Executive.

According to the company, the new shipping line is a natural extension of its existing expertise and business. The company began chartering ships nearly a year ago, at the time reporting it was paying some of the highest rates in the industry to gain stronger control over shipments.

The company said the new shipping line combines the logistics and chartering expertise of Allseas Global Logistics with the container equipment experience of its first containers operation and the shipping liner agency experience of DKT Allseas.

The launch of the new shipping line was kicked off with a long-term vessel charter for a 2,000-TEU fully cellular container vessel. The company chartered a 19-year-old vessel formerly known as the Valdivia and rechristened the 619-feet Allseas Pioneer, registered in Liberia. The company kicked off the service in March as an expansion of its operations over the past year to China.

"The Allseas Pioneer is the first in a series of six of our own branded container vessels, with an investment of over US$150 million," said Darren Wright, co-founder of Allseas Shipping Company and Group. "Such is the commitment we have to the new company and the customers using it to steady their supply chains."

The line will specialise in import and export services from China to UK/Europe, along with import services from Bangladesh to the UK/Europe, offering direct routes to greatly reduce shipping transit times from origin to destination.

It is an expansion of the company's China Xpress service and its latest Bangladesh service, Asia Xpress. The company reports it is already working on new service routes which will include calls in Genoa, Valencia, East India, Vietnam, and Cambodia, along with transpacific routes to the United States and Canada.

With a fleet of six similar sized containerships, Allseas says it will give the company complete control of departure and arrival timescales and massively improve schedule integrity, which is of paramount importance to customers.