CMA CGM announced the start up of its New Europe Mascarene Oceania (NEMO) service that, from North Europe and Mediterranean, will serve the Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia and return.

The NEMO service will operate with 13 modern and fast 2,800 teus ships, each with significant reefer carrying capacity, on a round trip itinerary of 91 days, first on a fortnightly basis then changing to weekly in May 2007.

This new service will offer 26 calls and connections to all over the world via its main hubs including Le Havre, Fos, Damietta, Port Kelang, Colombo and Malta. It will be the first service to offer direct links from Australia/New Zealand to Chennai and from Chennai to Europe.

Operated by CMA CGM (nine ships) and incorporating subsidiaries DELMAS (three ships) and ANL (slots) together with VSA Partner Deutsche Afrika Linien (one ship), NEMO will immediately replace the former Indian Ocean service. It will complement the two other CMA CGM Panama Direct and Suez Direct services until further notice.

The NEMO rotation will cover Tilbury, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Fos, La Spezia, Damietta, Suez Canal, Djibouti, Pointe des Galets, Port Louis, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Lyttelton, Melbourne, Adelaide, Jakarta, Port Kelang, Chennai, Colombo, Djibouti, Jeddah, Suez Canal, Damietta, Malta, La Spezia, Tilbury.

'This new dedicated service reinforces CMA CGM Group's position in key and highly competitive markets and confirms our expansion strategy to serve our customers in the Indian Ocean and Oceania areas,' says Jean-Fran'ois Guittet, Senior Vice President Africa Oceania and Indian Ocean Lines.

The first vessel to be deployed on the NEMO Service is the CMA CGM COPERNIC.