The first ship from Melfi Marine Corp., the Marwan, arrived during the night of Wednesday to Thursday at the Port of Montreal. Melfi will be providing a regular container transport service between Naples (Italy), Valencia (Spain), Montreal and Havana (Cuba). Three ships will serve this route with a departure from Montreal every ten days.

This is how the Port of Montreal is increasing its container traffic with the Mediterranean, which rose by 14.2 % over the first five months of 2009.

“The choice of Montreal is proof that our strategic advantages, such as the shortest transit time with North Europe and the Mediterranean, our location 1,600 kilometres inland and having an efficient intermodal rail system, represent real advantages for shippers,” pointed out Tony Boemi, Vice-President, Growth and Development, at the Montreal Port Authority.

To mark the MARWAN’s transit through the Port of Montreal, Mr. Boemi presented an antique map of the Island of Montreal to the ship’s captain, Kurt Brammer, the President and CEO of Protos Shipping, Andre Neuendorff, and Melfi’s Marketing Director, Alfredo Diaz

The MARWAN, which flies the flag of Cyprus, was built in 1995. It has a deadweight tonnage of 22,185 tonnes and can carry 1,388 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The two other ships that will provide this new service are the TEVAL, which flies the flag of Malta, and the IBERIA, which flies the flag of Germany. They both have the same carrying capacity as the MARWAN.