Minsheng Shipping targets growing SE Asian – India trades
Shanghai: A Chinese shipping line is venturing overseas with its own vessels for the first time, under the leadership of an intra-Asia veteran.
Shanghai-based Minsheng Shipping, a joint venture between Minsheng Industrial Group and Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), has launched an independent liner service connecting Southeast Asia with the Indian subcontinent through its subsidiary Minsheng Lines.
The first sailing of the service, with the 1,452-teu Irrawaddy Star, departed Laem Chabang on May 19.
Minsheng Lines will deploy four containerships for the weekly service which will call at Bangkok, Laem Chabang, Ho Chi Minh, Singapore, Port Klang, Yangon, Chittagong, Haldia.
Igal Dafni, a former executive at ZIM and CEO of Gold Star Lines and CNC Lines, was recently appointed as executive director of Minsheng Lines.
In addition to the new service, Minsheng Lines plans to launch a second service from South East Asia to the West Coast of India and the Middle East in the near future.
Minsheng Shipping mainly operates on China’s Yangtze River. It started a South Asia service from December 2014 through slot sharing operation. The service is operated from domestic ports including Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo to Chittagong in Bangladesh and Calcutta in India.