Zim drops Nhava Sheva on Asia/Black Sea

   A Zim-operated service between the Far East and Black Sea will drop calls at India’s largest container port as of late October, according to a note this week from Hapag-Lloyd, which takes slots on the service.
   Starting from the Oct. 24 sailing, Zim’s EMX service will drop calls at the Nhava Sheva port complex and replace them with calls at Mundra, India’s largest privately owned port, according to the note.
   According to American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data, the existing rotation of the EMX, which Hapag-Lloyd calls ABS, is Busan, Shanghai, Ningbo, Da Chan Bay, Port Kelang, Colombo, Haifa, Ashdod, Istanbul, Novorossiysk, Constanta, Istanbul, Haifa, Nhava Sheva, Colombo, Port Kelang and Busan.
   The service operates with 10 Zim ships with an average capacity of 4,170 TEUs. Hapag-Lloyd’s Grand Alliance partners NYK Line and OOCL, as well as China Shipping, take slots on the service.
   The three-terminal Nhava Sheva port complex, the key container gateway on India’s West Coast, has struggled throughout the year with chronic congestion, particularly at the port’s government-operated Jawaharlal Nehru container facility. DP World and APM Terminals operate the other two terminals. It wasn’t immediately clear which terminal the EMX calls.
   Hapag-Lloyd has previously noted congestion at the government facility, with a vessel on its Indamex service from North America unable to berth on time due to bottlenecks at the terminal.