Hapag-Lloyd expects further growth in Africa – New MIAX service to launch in October

Hapag-Lloyd continues to develop its position in Africa and launches the new MIAX (Middle East-India-Africa Express) service – which will offer direct connections and fast transit times between South and West Africa, the Persian Gulf, India, Colombo (Sri Lanka) and La Réunion. Hapag-Lloyd has entered the African market about twelve years ago and has since then seen steady and significant growth in transported volumes to and from Africa.

“With the new MIAX service our customers will now benefit from an even wider range of fast and flexible direct connections,” says Dheeraj Bhatia, Senior Managing Director of Hapag-Lloyd’s Region Middle East.

The MIAX service will be connected to the Global Mainline Network via the key ports of Jebel Ali (Dubai) and Colombo. Hapag-Lloyd will jointly operate the MIAX service with it’s THE Alliance partner Ocean Network Express. A total of nine ships with a capacity of 2,800 TEU each, including five provided by Hapag-Lloyd, will be deployed for the new service.

“The new MIAX service enables us to offer our customers very attractive transit times between South and West Africa, Middle East and India, at the same time, we are integrating Africa even more tightly into our global network,” says Samad Osman, Managing Director of Hapag-Lloyd’s Area Africa.

The first departures are scheduled for early October with the following port rotation: Jebel Ali ▪ Mundra ▪ Nhava Sheva ▪ Colombo ▪ La Réunion ▪ Durban ▪ Cape Town ▪ Tema ▪ Lagos (Tincan and Apapa) ▪ Cape Town ▪ Durban ▪ Jebel Ali.