Hull & Hatch launches Indian Ocean loop

The Dubai-based Hull & Hatch Logistics group has launched this month a service connecting the UAE (Jebel Ali), Red Sea (Hodeidah), East Africa (Mombasa, Dar-es-Salaam) and the Indian subcontinent (Mumbai-Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Karachi) (4596). The service, operated by subsidiary H&H Lines Ltd, is expected to employ ships of 1,200-1,500 teu. A first ship, the Euroseas-owned/Eurobulk-managed NINOS (1,285 teu - ex YM QINGDAO) has been chartered to inaugurate the service. A second ship is expected to be chartered soon.Until now a rather unknown name on the liner shipping scene, H&H acted until recently as a NVOCC. It got involved last year in the representation of a service linking Dubai to Karachi offered by Mega Lines (believed linked to the Pakistan-based Mega and Forbes group), employing the 1,203 teu MEGA I, scrapped earlier this year, and the chartered Sri Lanka-owned multipurpose 580 teu MEGA II. This service was halted in late 2006.H&H has since relaunched a similar service, connecting the UAE, Karachi and Kandla (37942), using the MEGA II, renamed COMORIN PRIDE. This ship was reported as originally chartered last June by Mega Lines for two years before coming under the H&H umbrella (of note, this ship is fitted with a roro auxiliary access to weather deck only through a tunnel in the aft accommodations).