Today marks the beginning of CMA CGM’s European Caribbean service connecting with the UK for the first time through DP World London Gateway Port.
The service provides one of the shortest transit times between Central America and North Europe and will open up opportunities for the UK to better connect with the whole of Caribbean region through CMA CGM’s strategic hub in Kingston, Jamaica.
It is dedicated to reefer transport and in cooperation with Hapag–Lloyd, the service will be run by five 2,300 TEU (twenty-foot-equivalent) capacity, state-of-the-art CMA CGM vessels and one Hapag–Lloyd vessel.
“These improvements will lead to shorter transit times and provide greater choice to shippers moving goods between Central America & the Caribbean to the UK,” says Rob Waterman, CEO, CMA CGM UK.
“DP World London Gateway is exceptionally well equipped to handle reefer containers and we look forward to building on our good relationship with the port to further enhance this service loop for our customers.”
The new ECS rotation will be: Puerto Limon, Kingston, Rotterdam, DP World London Gateway, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Caucedo, Kingston, Santo Tomás de Castilla, Puerto Cortes and Puerto Limon.
The shipper’s EUROSAL service, linking the west coast of South America and northern Europe will also be upgraded to larger, higher reefer capacity vessels of almost 10,000teus.
Lidl on verge of opening distribution facility
In addition retail discounter Lidl is setting up an 187,000sq ft distribution facility at DP World London Gateway to strengthen the supermarket’s distribution to its 640 stores across the country.
It is planned to start operating in February.
“As we push forward with our UK expansion plans we continue to strengthen our core infrastructure in order to support our new and existing stores up and down the country. We are, therefore, pleased to have found a viable facility at DP World London Gateway Logistics Park that meets our current distribution requirements,” says Adrienne Howells, Lidl’s Head of Warehouse Expansion.
