New direct route between Gothenburg and India Subcontinent

The Port of Gothenburg now has a new direct shipping route between Gothenburg and India. The route has been started by the Indian government-owned shipping line The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI).

"A new direct route in these uncertain times is very pleasing news indeed. India, with its population of 1.2 billion, is an important and growing market for Swedish companies," says Magnus Kårestedt, chief executive of the Port of Gothenburg.

The new route is open to both imports and exports and vessels will visit the Port of Gothenburg every third week. The transport time with this new express service between Gothenburg and India will be approximately 20 days.

SCI will initially use two 4,500 TEU container vessels for its operations between India and northern Europe. Two new vessels will be added in April and May 2009

Transhipment to Red Sea Ports
The route starts in Felixstowe, Rotterdam and Hamburg before calling at Gothenburg. The vessels will make an on route call in a Red Sea (Jeddah and/or Djibouti) port, enabling transhipment to main Red Sea ports, before arriving India.

The service will call Nhava Sheva and Colombo directly, with transhipment possibilities to Indian west and east cost ports, Karachi and Middle East

Vessels will then turn around and make its way back to Europe.

With the new route, the Port of Gothenburg has seven direct routes to ports outside Europe - three to Asia, two to North America, one to Central America and one to Australia via South Africa. The Port of Gothenburg is the only port in Sweden with direct transocean traffic for container vessels.

The Swedish agent for The Shipping Corporation of India is Freightman AB.

Factfile: India
Population: 1,186,200,000. The most common export goods from Sweden to India are pulp, paper, cardboard, iron and steel scrap, chemicals, steel and sawn timber products. The most common import goods from India to Sweden are steel pipes and parts, metals, textiles, carpets, furniture and rice.

Factfile: Port of Gothenburg
The Port of Gothenburg is the largest port in the Nordic region and the only port in Sweden with the capacity to receive the largest freight vessels with a direct link to other parts of the world. A large proportion of Swedish imports and exports pass through the Port of Gothenburg.