IRISL Coming Back to Europe by End of the Month
Image Courtesy: IRISLIslamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) plans to return to Europe before the end of this month, with HDS Lines ready to launch a full container service connecting Iran with Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, Alphaliner said.
The loop will see the first calls of Iranian-flagged vessels in Europe since the UN and EU imposed their sanctions against IRISL/HDS in June and July 2010, respectively, forcing HDS to leave the Europe trades in late 2010.
The new service is expected to start from Bandar Abbas, with calls initially limited to a fairly small number of North European ports (tentatively Antwerp and Hamburg), before being extended to other ports at a later stage, with ships of up to 6,500 teu to be deployed.
IRISL’s return follows the withdrawal of nuclear-related sanctions against Iran. The company did not lose any time in setting up new and restoring old transport routes. Just last week, IRISL established a new shipping route to China.
Namely, the arrival of the Iranian containership Perarin to Qinzhou Port on Wednesday marked the official kick off of the first shipping service to link Middle East and Beibu Gulf, Guangxi Beibu Gulf Int. Port Group confirmed to Chinese news agency Xinhua.
The ship reportedly delivered 978 containers from countries that form part of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. The new route links the south and southeast China, Singapore, Malaysia, UAE with Bandar Abbas.
Iran has already signed several agreements related to transport including the most recent one between IRISL and the French shipping company CMA CGM. Under the deal, the two carriers agreed to cooperate in the field of shipping and logistics, including sharing vessel capacity, setting up joint services in various international routes, exchanging containers and cooperating in terminal and port activities worldwide.
World Maritime News Staff
