Safmarine announces the reintroduction of the ME 3 shipping service between the Mediterranean and West Central Asia.

According to Safmarine Liner Director, Jan Scheck, the reintroduction of the service is aligned with Safmarine's plans to strengthen its presence in the dynamic Mediterranean/Black Sea region. It also supports Safmarine's renewed focus on its core markets of the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and Africa.

The ME 3 service is being reintroduced as a dedicated product for the Mediterranean ' Middle East/India trade after its temporary withdrawal in 2009. While offering best in class transit times, the new ME3 is designed for direct Turkey coverage with a direct call in Ambarli.

According to Scheck, 'The focus of the revised ME 3 service is on providing an improved product, rather than on increasing capacity, hence the decision to add a direct call at Ambarli and to deploy smaller vessels on the revised service.'

The reintroduction of the ME 3 service also complements the product enhancements made to the ME1 service whereby the ports of Gioia Tauro and Port Said have been removed from ME 1 (since these will now be covered on ME3) and replaced with eastbound calls at Algeciras and Aqaba. The ME 1 service will also offer an exclusive, direct North Europe to Aqaba connection which will be the fastest in the market.

Says Scheck: 'The combined product changes on ME 1 and ME 3 will also lead to an improved Intra-Middle East service as these services will provide more frequent departures from West and North India to Jebel Ali and the ports served in this region.

'Similarly we will be able to offer an additional weekly sailing from the Gulf area to Pipavav and Jawaharlal Nehru.' The addition of Aqaba to the ME1 rotation will also enable a fast and direct service from Jordan to Jebel Ali and West and North India.'

Five vessels, with an average FFE of 1400, will be deployed on the ME 3 service, which will have a port rotation of:' Pipavav (India) ' Jawaharlal Nehru (India) ' Jebel Ali (UAE) ' Salalah (Oman) ' Port Said (Egypt) ' Ambarli (Turkey) ' Gioia Tauro (Italy) ' Port Said (Egypt) ' Jebel Ali.

The first effective vessels in the new ME 3 rotation are:

  • Westbound: Nedlloyd Asia 6LF/1006 departing Nhava Sheva on 11 April
  • Eastbound: Nedlloyd Asia 6LF/1009 departing Ambarli on 29 April

First effective vessels in the new ME 1 rotation are:

  • Westbound: Maersk Kithira 8KF/1006 departing Jebel Ali - 8 April
  • Eastbound: Maersk Kimi 8JF/1007 departing Felixstowe (United Kingdom) - 18 April