From December 2009, Maersk will extend its AE10 Far East service with 8,000TEU vessels calling DCT Gdansk on a weekly basis.
Introducing direct calls through DCT Gdansk will change the dynamics of the terminal's operations and DCT Gdansk will become Poland's largest container terminal.
The first AE10 call will be made by the 8,200TEU 'Maersk Taikung', which is due to depart from Shanghai on December 1. The vessel is scheduled to arrive in Gdansk on January 5, 2010.
The port rotation will be: Ningbo – Shanghai – Kaohsiung – Yantian – Hong Kong – Tanjung Pelepas – Le Havre – Zeebrugge – Gdansk – Gothenburg – Aarhus –Bremerhaven – Rotterdam – Singapore – Hong Kong – Kobe – Nagoya – Shimizu – Yokohama – Ningbo.
"This is a historic moment for the Polish port industry," said DCT Gdansk CEO, Boris Wenzel.
"For almost 40 years, there have been direct container services linking Asia and Europe but most terminated in Germany and relied on transhipment to serve Scandinavia and the Baltic. While many analysts doubted the economics of sending post-Panamax ships into the Baltic Sea, we have always held the belief that large vessels would come directly to Gdansk as it develops into the gateway to central Europe and Russia.
"The crisis has just functioned as a time-accelerator and made it happen earlier than we planned. Now that the market is created, we are convinced that more lines will choose to add DCT to their mainline schedules and we are already planning options for increasing our handling capability to service this demand."
