UK leading shipside and landside performance at DP World Southampton has played part in CMA CGM’s decision to add a Southampton call to its new FEMEX service to Northern Europe.
The new service is a vote of confidence for Southampton, who have seen a 28% increase in crane rates over the past 2 years, placing the terminal among the best performing terminals in northern Europe and setting a new standard for vessel productivity in the UK.
Offering customers a direct weekly route into Southampton for Greek and Turkish imports and exports, Southampton has already received an adhoc call from the Santa Balbina, within the CMA CGM FEMEX service, on the 17th March 2013. The first regular weekly service will start calling at the terminal from the 31st March 2013.
The CMA CGM FEMEX service will now call at Southampton, Hamburg and Antwerp before stopping over in Malta and then onto the Greek port of Thessaloniki and the Turkish region of Marmara. The return trip will call into Malta, Tangier and Casablanca before returning to North Europe to complete its rotation.
The terminal is currently upgrading its facilities with a new 500m long deep water quay designed to cater for the next generation of Ultra Large Container Vessels. The £150m project, which includes extensive dredging of the marine access to the Port of Southampton, is due to complete next year (2014).
DP World Southampton managing director Chris Lewis said: “It is a great achievement to secure a new service such as the CMA CGM FEMEX.
This is a vote of confidence in the terminal and our team here in Southampton to maintain the top quality service which, I am proud to say, has become the daily norm.
“Given the huge investment by ABP in our terminal’s infrastructure, our market leading performance and our hugely advantageous position near the world’s shipping lanes and inland destinations, DP World Southampton is making a uniquely attractive proposition both today and long into the future.”
