Willhelmshaven set to gain third service

The new German JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven is set to welcome its third service to the port in February 2015.

Maersk Line’s ME1 service which sails on the Europe-Middle East route will call for the first time on 26 Feburary 2015.

The weekly services goes from Felixstowe in the UK to Salalah in Oman via Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Aqaba, Jeddah, Jebel Ali, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mundra.

In a statement, Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven (CTW) operator Eurogate said that ship sizes on this service will average at 6,800 teu.

Eurogate chairman Emanuel Schiffer said: “We are delighted that our customer Maersk Line is increasingly integrating our deep-water container terminal into its transport routes.

He continued: “One reason is almost certainly the growing interest the shipping industry is showing in our container terminal in Wilhelmshaven, which has very good hinterland connections both by sea and on land.”

CTW is 30%-owned by APM Terminals (APMT) which, like Maersk Line, is owned by the Danish Maersk Group. The two existing services which call at CTW are also operated by Maersk Line.

CTW started operations in 2012 and has struggled to attract customers, handling only 80,000 teu in 2013 and having to introduce short-time working hours. The terminal has a planned capacity of 2.7m teu and cost €350m (US$440m) to develop.

In November, Eurogate spokesperson Corinna Romke told CM that two main liner services would be calling regularly from early 2015. This is one of them and details of the other service have yet to be announced.

At that time, Romke also said: “When the 2M alliance comes, others will follow.” The 2M alliance consists of the two biggest shipping companies in the world Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company.

The terminal is distinguished by the depth of its water, with a draught of up to 16.5 m, making it Germany’s only deepwater port and the most easterly deep-sea port in the North of Europe.