SIMIC

DANISH shipping giant Maersk has announced that it will add Sohar port call in Oman to its ocean shipping service, Shaheen Express, starting early July.

The Shaheen Express will rotate between Jebel Ali, Mundra, Pipavav, Jebel Ali, and Sohar, with the aim of creating a stable and reliable service for the India-UAE-Oman corridor, the carrier said



This service looks to address the rising demand for customers trading between the Indian and the Gulf markets.



Christopher Cook, managing director, Maersk UAE, Oman and Qatar, said: "Oman is an extremely important market for us. In recent times, we have seen an increased demand from our customers. We recently expanded our office footprint based on the feedback from our customers and are now adding the Sohar port call to our Shaheen Express."



The direct service to Oman aims to improve transit time for some of the inbound corridors, such as from Port Qasim (Pakistan), Port Said (Egypt), Sokhna Port (Egypt), Kolkata Port (India), Jawaharlal Nehru Port (India) and some European ports.



Similarly, by directly calling Mundra and Pipavav in India, it would help the chemical and industrial exporters from Oman.



"The improved transit times combined with the reliability of the Shaheen Express would render predictable ocean transportation solutions to our customers," Mr Cook added.



The ocean shipping service plans to include two vessels with a nominal capacity of 2,800 TEU.



The introduction of Shaheen Express, combined with end-to-end logistics solutions being offered in Oman, is slated to contribute to Maersk bringing competitiveness to the operations of importers and exporters out of Oman.



This month, Maersk, in collaboration with its partners Renfe and Cepsa, planned to conduct the first fuel test in Spain using second-generation biofuels in the railway sector, reports London's Port Technology.