DP World welcomed the newly launched weekly Malabar Service, at its state-of-the-art International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT). The new service will be operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and will have 4 vessels of 2400 TEU capacity. “Malabar” service’s maiden vessel, M.V. MSC Krittika, reached DP World’s terminal in Cochin on 6th April 2023. The new service will provide direct and seamless connectivity between Cochin, Mundra, Karachi, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait (with Shuwaikh Port), Qatar (with Hamad Port) and Sri Lanka (Colombo). This will create a faster, stable, and reliable service for the traders across the India-Middle East corridor and leverage the strong partnerships between the two regions for boosting economic growth. Commenting on this new service, Praveen Joseph, CEO DP World Cochin said, “We are committed to expanding trade routes through more direct services and are focused on continuously improving our operations to serve our customers better. The newly launched Malabar service by our valued customer MSC, will play an integral role in strengthening the bilateral trade between India and the Middle East countries. In addition, this service will enable Indian exporters have a deeper and wider access to the markets in the Middle East region.”
The Malabar Service will be the 3rd weekly service sailing for the Middle East region from DP World Cochin. The port terminal is capable of handling post panamax ships and in February 2023, the 605-metre-long terminal reached a monumental milestone of successfully handling 6 million TEUs since its inception in 2011.