Aug 20, 2018: Hapag-Lloyd plans to introduce four direct connections from the Port of Mombasa to the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and India.

The world’s sixth largest shipping company made the announcement last week with the move coming barely four months after launching its services in East Africa with a weekly line from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

“After a successful start, this service will be expanded in September with a weekly connection to and from Nhava Sheva (India), Mundra (India), Khor Fakkan (UAE), Jebel Ali (UAE), Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. The so-called East Africa Service 2 (EAS2) will replace the current EAS service and directly link the Arabian Gulf and the West Coast of India with East Africa,” said Dheeraj Bhatia, Hapag-Lloyd MD -Africa, Middle East and India.

With improvements at the port, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) plans to increase its cargo handling capacity from the current 30 million tonnes to 45 million tonnes by 2022.