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Pacific International Lines (PIL), the Singapore-based containership operator, is upgrading weekly services on the Far East – Red Sea trade sector. The services, named RSS and RES, will commence operations in March 2018, superseding three existing services, RSS, RS3 and RS5.
The route will be operated with a series of 17 x 11,000 to 14,000 teu vessels including its latest new builds, the 12,000 teu P Class. These ships have been purpose-built for Red Sea trades, and feature a ballast water treatment system fitted onboard and various energy saving measures incorporated in the design.
The enhanced services will offer direct connections to the main Red Sea markets from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Singapore. The Red Sea ports served are Djibouti, Jeddah, Sokhna and Aqaba. PIL’s existing fleet of feeders operating in the Red Sea region will complement these Far East – Far East services by providing extended coverage to the Port Sudan, Aden, Berbera and Massawa.
Lisa Teo, executive director of PIL said: “The new RSS and RES services will fortify PIL’s footprint in the Red Sea region, where it is an established market leader. With enhanced network coverage, increased frequency and improved transit times, we will continue to deliver high quality and reliable shipping services to our valued customers.”
Aqaba will be an important port of call for PIL as it looks to further strengthen its regional position. This was underlined recently when Aqaba Container Terminal (ACT), the leading gateway to Jordan and neighbouring markets, achieved a notable milestone when handling the PIL vessel, Kota Pekarang. The 330m long, 12,000 teu vessel is one of the largest ships to visit the port and made its maiden call on January 4th as part of the line’s weekly RSS service into the Kingdom.
The ACT team, represented by the operations manager, Kamal Alhraishat, and customer service manager, Alaa Bjan, as well as PIL’s Jordan general manager, Imad Sakakini, and Aqaba office manger, Mohammad Al Harazneh, went onboard to welcome the captain and his crew. To mark the occasion a special plaque was presented by ACT to the captain.
ACT is a joint venture between the Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) and APM Terminals, operating through a 25-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement signed in 2006. The terminal is a central component of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA).
