India's Cochin Gains Second Direct Container Service

MOL is adding a call at the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal in India’s Port of Cochin, bringing the number of direct weekly services to DP World's new container facility to two.

The Japanese carrier's intra-Asia NCS/NCX service, which is operated with OOCL and Samudera Shipping, will begin calling on the port Dec. 18.  French carrier CMA CGM in August included a call at Cochin on its North Europe-Mediterranean-Oceania (NEMO) service.

“Apart from offering a direct service to China from Cochin, the NCS/NCX service also accepts containers from Cochin to the U.S. West Coast, Australia and South America with multiple connectivity from Singapore and Shanghai,” VICTT said.

Officials said the service offers an estimated transit time of 15 days from Cochin to China, compared with 22 to 24 days via transshipment routings over the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

The NCS/NCX currently deploys five vessels, with MOL providing three ships and the other two partners, one each.

The revised port rotation will be: Ningbo, Shanghai, Dachan Bay, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru), Cochin, Colombo, Port Kelang, Singapore, Hong Kong and back to Ningbo.

The two mainline weekly calls to DP World Cochin, India’s first transshipment hub, will help port officials market Cochin as an alternative to other major transshipment ports in the region particularly Colombo, which largely depends on Indian cargo.