Senator Lines, Hapag-Lloyd leaving Gioia Tauro for Cagliari

German container lines Senator Lines and Hapag-Lloyd are to replace calls at Gioia Tauro in Southern Italy on their weekly Mediterranean/Canada MCA service with Cagliari instead.

The last call at Gioia Tauro will be made by the vessel Power on Sept. 24. The Genoa Senator will call Cagliari for the first time on Sept. 30. The new port rotation of the MCA will be Cagliari, Salerno, Genoa, Fos, Montreal, and back to Cagliari. The service uses four ships averaging about 1,900 TEUs. Mediterranean Shipping Co. takes slots.

Senator Lines said the decision to change ports was agreed upon to improve the service quality, schedule integrity and transshipment times. Cagliari will serve as Senator Lines' new transshipment hub for cargo from Canada into the Eastern Mediterranean region, such as Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia and Malta.

The move will also mean that Senator Lines has no services remaining with calls at Gioia Tauro as the CKYH alliance, which the Bremen-based carrier belongs to in certain trades, has moved its transshipment hub from the Italian port to Malta.

The decision in favor of Cagliari has been made because of its geographical advantages and the even better service reliability and quality as a consequence thereof," said Mark Ehlers, director operational management at Senator Lines. By implementing Cagliari as a new calling port and as our new transshipment hub for the Canada cargo, we can ensure the transit times and guarantee a very reliable schedule in times when all Western Mediterranean terminals are completely congested."

The switch also represents a turnaround in the fortunes of Cagliari, which suffered a dip in container volumes at the start of the year when Maersk Line exited. Earlier this week, the Grand Alliance, of which Hapag-Lloyd is a member, announced its intentions to relocate its Mediterranean transshipment hub from Gioia Tauro to Cagliari.