News / Major ocean carriers tap into the growing India-centric regional trade

The major container lines are increasingly investing in regional coverage out of India as they battle significant demand headwinds on their primary or larger trade targets, due to tariff and geopolitics.

French liner CMA CGM has a series of enhancements to its service networks covering the India-Red Sea and Persian Gulf markets, including opening complementary strings and the addition of new port calls.

Its BIGEX (India-Gulf Express) service has reinstated a call to Saudi Arabia’s Jubail port, and also added the UAE’s Jebel Ali to the rotation, the PIKEX (Pakistan-Gulf Express) has been reconfigured into two strings. PIKEX1 and PIKEX2,  and there is a new intra-Gulf feeder weekly connection between Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, calling Khalifa-Dammam-Shuaba-Bahrain.

“These updates strengthen connectivity, improve schedule reliability, and ensure smoother, more efficient trade flows,” said Jesper Stenbak, senior VP at CMA CGM Dubai.

The Marseille-based carrier’s BIGEX operation involves the three vessels it recently reflagged to the Indian registry, a move followed by the signing of a six-vessel newbuild order with India’s Cochin Shipyard, also to be flagged locally.

Reflecting that regional push, the carrier this week agreed to invest some $115m to expand the capacity of its terminal at Khalifa Port, operated jointly with Abu Dhabi Ports. This complements an agreement last month between CMA CGM and Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT) to develop Terminal 4 at Saudi’s flagship Jeddah Port.

CMA CGM is not alone in striving to tap into India-centric regional trade potential. Israeli container line Zim, which has maintained a low-profile in the market for some time amid the challenges linked to the Red Sea crisis, seems to have rekindled its interest.

The carrier has joined an intra-Asia service, recently launched by Wan Hai in partnership with Evergreen, RCL and Interasia.  Branded by Wan Hai as the Tamil Nadu-Thailand Express (TTX), the weekly loop offers a rotation of Cat Lai (Ho Chi Minh City)-Laem Chabang-Singapore-Port Kelang-Chennai-Visakhapatnam-Port Kelang-Singapore-Cat Lai.

According to industry sources, Zim has acquired slots to serve Indian shippers.

ONE has also extended coverage of its WIN service between India and the US east coast, via a stop at Jebel Ali, revising the rotation to Hazira-Nhava Sheva-Mundra-New York-Norfolk-Savannah-Jacksonville-Charleston-Jebel Ali-Hazira.

Meanwhile, Asian volumes into southern India have seen strong traction in the past few years, primarily catering to the needs of industrial clusters that have sprung up in and around the Chennai region, powered by so-called trade diversification. Indian manufacturers have traditionally relied on raw materials and other semi-finished products from various Asian markets, especially China.

Ocean rates on Asia-India inbound trades have also been strong and stable, relative to other tradelanes, industry data shows.  For example, Shanghai-Chennai spot rates have seen no noticeable correction, month on month, averaging $850 per teu and $950 per 40ft, even higher than the freight yield mainliners have on Indian bookings to North Europe.