Emirates Shipping Line to enter Asia/U.S. East Coast trade

Emirates Shipping Line to enter Asia/U.S. East Coast trade    Emirates Shipping Line will enter the Asia/U.S. Gulf and East coasts trades when it becomes a vessel provider on the previously announced weekly Asia-Gulf Express (AGX) service from Zim Integrated Shipping Service, due to start next month.
   The Dubai-based start-up carrier will provide two of the nine 3,000-TEU ships. “We are pleased to announce the launch of a service that will provide a direct connections for our customers linking East Asia to the major commercial and trading hubs in the U.S. Gulf ports,” said Vikas Khan, Emirates Shipping Line’s chief executive officer.
   The AGX service will have a port rotation of: Shanghai; Ningbo; Busan; Cristobal, Panama; Kingston, Jamaica; Tampa, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; Houston; Kingston; Cristobal; and back to Shanghai. The service is scheduled to make its inaugural sailing from Shanghai June 21.
   In a related development, Emirates Shipping Line today opened a subsidiary in China to acts as its agents in the booming country. Emirates Shipping Agencies (China) Ltd. will have representative offices in Shanghai, Ningbo, Chiwan, Tianjin and Qingdao. Ajay Minocha has been appointed managing director of the new subsidiary.
   “China is one of the world’s most dynamic economies, and its rapid expansion is second to none” said Khan. “By having our representative offices in China we believe we will become closer to our customer base since we are here for the long run.”
   Emirates Shipping Line opened for business in April and this week started
operations with a weekly U.S. East Coast/Mediterranean/Indian subcontinent
Indus Express service in partnership with Zim, MacAndrews and the Shipping Corp. of India.