Maersk Line will start a new service between Ecuador and the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea in September that will call at Novorossiysk.
Maersk Line expects the growth of trade with Russia and the Black Sea to contribute 5 percent to 8 percent in average annual market growth on Asia-Europe trade over the next five years, according to its chief operating officer, Morten Englestoft.
Maersk will deploy eight vessels on the service, which will likely call at Guayaquil, Balboa, Manzanillo, Algeciras, Izmit, Ambarli, Novorossiysk and Ilyichevsk.
The port rotation has yet to be decided, and, like the Ecubex service between Guayaquil and the Baltic, could take in other gateways in Central America and the Caribbean, such as Puerto Limon and Puerto Moin in Costa Rica.
Up to now Maersk has served the Black Sea via transshipment only, so the new loop will provide a direct weekly service for Ecuador's reefer cargo exporters.
Currently, Maersk Line has a feeder service to Novorossiysk, Russia’s largest Black Sea port, which also calls at Port Said and Ashdod. In Novorossiysk, the service calls at the NUTEP terminal.
The Journal of Commerce Online
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