Milaha lunches feeder service between Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Colombo and Chittagong will be the seventh and eighth new ports of call for Qatar-based maritime transport and logistics conglomerate Milaha this year.    Qatar-based maritime transport and logistics conglomerate Milaha is launching a direct feeder service between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the company announced Nov. 22.
   “The service will cater to the general consumer goods and garments industry in Bangladesh, a high growth market,” Milaha said in a statement.
   Colombo, which is the largest and busiest port in Sri Lanka, and the port of Chittagong, Bangladesh, will be the seventh and eighth new ports of call for Milaha this year. The new calls are part of a significant service expansion that has taken place since the beginning of 2017, Milaha said.
   The new service, called BCX, will be operated with two 1,200-TEU vessels, and will begin by the end of November, following a port rotation of Colombo, Chittagong, and Colombo with a transit time of five days.
   “We have seen a great response to the direct and fast services that we launched between Qatar and some key South Asian markets earlier this year, and this has encouraged us to continue our strategic expansion into new markets,” Milaha President and CEO Abdulrahman Essa Al-Mannai explained. “We believe the BCX service will strongly enhance connectivity to one of the fastest-growing markets in South Asia.”
   The feeder service is just the latest example of Milaha building its international presence and portfolio of marine and logistics services. The company recently expanded into several new shipping routes and quickened deployment of new supply chain solutions across a number of countries.
   Milaha currently calls two ports in Oman (Sohar and Salalah), three ports in India (Nhava Sheva, Mundra, and Kandla), one port in Pakistan (Karachi), and one port in Kuwait (Shuwaikh).