Hapag-Lloyd will introduce a weekly service between Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and the east coast of Africa in April, 2018.
With the East Africa Service (EAS), the liner shipping company will be calling at the ports of Mombasa (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) for the first time. The service will then connect to Hapag-Lloyd's existing global network via Jeddah.
Hapag-Lloyd will initially deploy four vessels, each with a capacity of 1,200 teu, on the service.
"With our EAS, we will be entering a trade which our customers have wanted us to serve," said Lars Christiansen, senior managing director at Hapag-Lloyd Middle East region.
Christiansen added that by using Jeddah as the main transshipment port, Hapag-Lloyd will be able to offer fast transit times.
