Tripoli, 30 April 2013:
Italian shipping company Med Cross Lines will be adding another vessel to its cargo services to Libya later this month.
It has also added a new port call, Augusta in Sicily, for both its trade legs – the first from the Adriatic to Libya and the second from the Eastern Mediterranean to Libya. Augusta will act as a transhipment hub for container and roll on-roll off (‘ro-ro’) vehicle cargo.
The chief executive officer for Med Cross Lines, Loris Trevisan, told the Libya Herald that transhipment via Augusta was essential because of the heavy congestion at Libyan ports. “This will minimise long waits for our big vessel, the ‘Birka Express,’” he said.
Trevisan said that the Italian-headquartered company, which made its first voyage last October, was planning to add a third ship to its service by September this year. With port calls planned in Spain and France, he said, this would: “Complete Med Cross Lines’ full coverage of the Mediterranean market to Libya.”
Med Cross Lines port rotations are now as follows:
MXL North-South Service 1: Koper – Venice – Ancona – Bari – Augusta – Libya
MXL East-West Service 2: Izmir – Mersin – Alexandria – Augusta – Libya
Libyan port calls, either direct calls or via transhipment, are: Tripoli – Khoms – Misrata – Benghazi – Tobruk
Ports in Algeria and Tunisia will also be served via transhipment. [/restrict]
