MSC announced the newly established intermodal route between Djibouti & Ethiopia. As the first MSC intermodal service in Ethiopia, it is a key milestone for progress in the region.

Ethiopia is the origin land of coffee and currently the world’s fifth largest coffee exporting country, the largest in Africa. Ethiopia also has a fast-growing textile/garment export industry.

The new solution combines road and rail transport to facilitate smooth imports and exports out of landlocked Ethiopia.

MSC offers two weekly services, connecting our global network to the Port of Djibouti, Ethiopia’s main gateway:

• The PETRA service: Connecting China, Far East, Southeast Asia and all cargo routed via Singapore to Djibouti
• The NWC IPAK service: A direct connection to North Europe, and a connection to the US, MED, and IPAK regions via our regional transshipment hub King Abdullah Port.

Key transit times from Djibouti via road for imports:

• Addis Ababa: 3 days
• Hawassa: 4 days
• Modjo: 3 days (no service to dry port)

Key transit times to Djibouti via rail for exports:

• Indode Rail Station: 1 day by rail
• Modjo Rail Station: 1 day by rail

As MSC is one of the leading carriers in the region, we are constantly seeking to expand our services, and the Ethiopian Hinterlands is one of the fastest growing corridors in the East Africa region. The new solution enables stronger relationships between MSC and our customers, as we can provide more complete logistics solutions in the region.

Soji Thomas Korah, General Manager of MSC Ethiopia, says “We have been enthusiastically exploring our options for the past few years, and are excited to offer this intermodal solution that we believe will add value to MSC service. The Far East, Southeast Asia, U.S, IPAK, & NWC are all key markets for both Djibouti and Ethiopia. Our new intermodal services will be vital for coffee and garment export shipments to these regions.”

St. Petersburg, Fully operational as from this week, the new AE66 service links Korea, Japan and China to the Kaliningrad Region in Russia, the Baltic countries, and Poland through Trans-Siberian. The new Sea-Rail-Sea service runs west-bound fortnightly departing from the seaport of Vostochniy in Russia Far East at the Pacific to Kaliningrad on the Baltic sea, with robust outlooks for further expansion.

Transit times of the new regular service are significantly reduced vs purely Ocean services: it can transport goods in less than 20 days from Busan to Kaliningrad and the adjacent locations in the Baltics region, compared to an average of 55-60 days for Ocean routes via the Suez Canal.

“Maersk A66 services comes at the perfect time to help ease current logistics woes to move goods shipped from the Far East to Europe. The new offering provides global traders shorter transit times, cost-friendliness, and greener services. With tens of thousands of containers moving from Asia – Europe, providing creative solutions that offer better customer experience is the main driver of our activity.” said Zsolt Katona, Eastern Europe Managing Director, A.P. Moller -Maersk.

Fixed sailings in far east Asia as well as stable departures by Trans-Siberian Rail from Vostochniy will enable highly reliable on-time delivery, similar to AE19 and AE77 services, the other Sea- Rail-Sea services currently offered by A.P. Moller – Maersk.

“Our choice for AE66 to carry our items from Asia via Vostochniy was determined by multiple factors, like free on board (FOB) price, sustainable transit time and overall logistics expense to bring goods to our production factory in Kaliningrad. The key task of diversifying our supply chain and eliminating risks of delay caused by COVID19, is also perfectly solved by AE66 by enabling us to source Terephthalic Acid (TPA) from multiple locations in Asia. Thanks to the new service we have been also able to involve the new suppliers, which would be impossible if relying on the Ocean route only.” commented Viktor Chumachenko, Director of Logistics at GK “Ekopet.

Sustainable operations and stable schedules for the new AE66 service are ensured through close interaction and support by RU Federal Customs (FTS) and Russian Railways. Port operations are provided by Global Ports, while rail services are handled by TransContainer JSC.

Maersk plans to further increase volume by targeting customer segments dealing with highvalue and/or lead-time-sensitive cargos, such as Automotive, Electric, and Facilities sectors.

A.P. Moller -Maersk intermodal services from Asia to Europe offer a compelling alternative to the long transit times in Ocean transportation and the expensive rates in Air transportation.

FESCO Transportation Group is expanding the geography of its domestic routes and is launching a regular rail service from St. Petersburg to Chita and Blagoveshchensk via Moscow.

Now FESCO customers can deliver goods to the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Amur Region via the capital of Russia within the frames of a single logistics service.

Container trains will depart once a week from one of marine terminals of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region and will arrive at terminal and logistics center Beliy Rast in the Moscow region where some containers will be promptly re-loaded to FESCO trains destined for Chita and Blagoveshchensk.

Total transit time to station Chita-1 will be 12 days, to station Blagoveshchensk – 14 days. The basis of cargo flow of the new service will be formed by consumer goods.

The first train loaded with 56 containers departed from Terminal Sea Fish Port in February.

The service is focused on transportation of both imported and domestic goods that are produced in the North-Western region of Russia. FESCO customers also have access to regular shipments from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk and Moscow.

FESCO sends more than 80 container trains per week from Vladivostok, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, as well as from Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.