Port of Cleveland extends box service to India

The Port of Cleveland, via its Cleveland-Europe Express (CEE) container service, will offer shippers ongoing transport to India starting this spring.    The Port of Cleveland, via its Cleveland-Europe Express (CEE) container service, will offer shippers ongoing transport to India starting this spring. 
   “This is another opportunity for the CEE to reach global markets that we currently do not touch,” said Dave Gutheil, the port authority’s vice president of maritime and logistics. “We are trying to expand the service.”
   Operated by Dutch shipowner Spliethoff Group, the CEE provides Great Lakes shippers direct all-water access to overseas markets, with vessels making the trip between Cleveland and Antwerp, Belgium at least twice monthly during the St. Lawrence Seaway shipping season. This year’s seaway shipping season is expected to start possibly mid- to late March, depending on the winter weather and ice conditions.
   The new Indian service will use the partnership between Spliethoff and Puyvast, a logistics and chartering firm that has offices, agencies, stockyards, and infrastructure at all major Indian ports. 
   When the CEE containers arrive in Antwerp, they will be offloaded and placed on other vessels bound for India. The transit from the Port of Cleveland to India is expected to take 40-45 days, Gutheil told AS Daily. 
   The CEE has seen significant growth in its first two years of operation, including a nearly 500 percent boost in international container volume in 2015 as compared with 2014, according to the Port of Cleveland.
   “The Port of Cleveland expects the new connection with India to be a key factor in another year of growth in 2016,” Gutheil said.