EPIC member lines plan restructuring of services

The member lines of EPIC ( Europe Pakistan India Consortium) have announced restructuring of their services that link Northern Europe with Mediterranean region, West Asia and the Indian subcontinent., according to shipping industry sources. Following restructuring which is to take effect shortly, the transit time between the Northern Europe and the Indian sub-continent will be more competitive than before, according to Hamburg Sud, the German container line and its partner in EPIC, Hapag-Lloyd. Thus, the transit time between Antwerp and Karachi will be 17 days with addition of a few more days for calls at the Indian ports of Mundra and Nhava Sheva.
New rotation
The new port rotation for the EPIC service will be: Hamburg-Tilbury-Antwerp-Gioia Tauro-Jebel Ali- Karachi-Mundra-Nhava Sheva-Gio Tauro-Hamburg.
Both the shipping lines together will deploy six vessels of the capacity of 4,200-TEUs each, with Hapag Lloyd contributing four ships and the Hamburg Sud the balance two. Each ship will be equipped with 400 reefer plugs, it is learnt.
It might be noted that CMA CGM, Frances’ number one and the world’s number three container line, was earlier part of the EPIC service but not any more. It now operates its own EPIC II service with the help of six vessels of 2,475-TEU capacity each between Europe, India and Pakistan to supplement EPIC service to meet the growing demand for containerised service in the region.