GCL News
 
  • Multipurpose Global Container Line stresses advantage of variety
    GULF SHIPPER, USA, October 14, 2002, By Janet Plume

    "There was an opportunity at the time because of a lack of service between the Middle East and East Africa," said Bijan Paksima, GCL vice president for North America. "There were few carriers in that sector."............... (Read the whole article)
     
  • Lykes signs on to use GCL services and agency network. The Journal of Commerce, JOC ONLINE, Sep 09, 2002.

    Lykes Lines has upgraded its service between Africa and North America.

    It has added Rio Haina, Dominican Republic as a port of call on its North America-Africa, East Coast Loop service. It has also signed a deal with Global Container Lines, a regional shipping line to carry cargo between South Africa and East African ports. A new agent, African Liner Agencies Ltd, has been appointed in East Africa.

    "The trade between North America and Africa is growing rapidly," says Tony Bruno, senior vice president, Lykes Lines. "Our multi-purpose service is particularly attractive to shippers as it can carry everything from containers to bulk, breakbulk and ro-ro." The new call in the Dominican Republic opens three markets:

    - Canada and the U.S. East Coast to the Dominican Republic

    - Canada to Mexico

    - Mexico, Caribbean and Central America to Africa via Rio Haina.

    African Liner Agencies Ltd. has nine offices throughout East Africa including Mombasa and Nairobi, Kenya; Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, Tanzania; and Kampala, Uganda. "Their expertise and experience in inland transportation in East Africa, and in the market generally, will help us better serve our customers," said Bruno.

    "We already offered transshipment to and from East African ports but our arrangement with Global Container Lines means Lykes Lines has improved space and frequency on the only dedicated multi-purpose service in East Africa, covering Durban and Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda," he added.

    Lykes Lines also offers services to and from ports throughout West Africa via relay at Dakar, Senegal. Southern and East Africa are serviced via relay or inland connections to and from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.

    The full port rotation of the North America-Africa, East Coast Loop service: Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Rio Haina, Dakar, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, Hamilton (summer months only). Other ports are serviced on demand.

    On the Africa trades, Lykes Lines also offers a North America-Africa, Gulf Loop service, which operates northbound only.

    — Chris Dupin

 

  • GCL ships are expected to train more pilots, much to the relief of KPA which faces a perennial pilot shortage. East African Standard – August 8, 2002

    A MAJOR foreign shipping line has already started training Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) marine pilots in a programme intended to tackle shortage of marine pilots at the Mombasa Port.

    Global Container Lines Limited (GCL) took the first two pilot trainees a few weeks ago. The trainees are reportedly doin    g well as their ships visit different parts of the world. Captain Abid Choudhury, General Manager of African Liner Agency Limited (ALAL), the local ships agent for GCL in Mombasa, confirmed the training deal recently.

    “We have taken in two trainee pilots on board our vessels.Their training takes 18 months,” Captain Choudhury said. GCL ships are expected to train more pilots, much to the relief of KPA which faces a perennial pilot shortage. This is because training marine pilots is far too expensive for the State cooperation. According to the Harbour Master, Captain Twalib Khamis, KPA is determined to get adequate pilots however costly and long the courses are. He says it takes 10 years to train a pilot.

    Currently, the KPA has only 10 pilots who are all above 40 years of age. Of the 10, three have attained retirement age but are retained due to lack of replacement. The KPA has been forced to “poach” some pilots from the Kenya Navy, says a KPA Public Relations Officer, Mr. Haji Masseno. The poached pilots are undergoing training at the Alexandria College in Egypt. Khamis says marine pilots are crucial since any ship that enters or leaves the Kenyan port must be piloted by local persons.

    KPA’s Managing Director, Mr. Brown Ondego, says the trainees are getting what is known as “sea-time training” which exposes there to practical experience. This sort of attachment is hard to get. So far, Ondego says, the would-be pilots have been going to naval colleges abroad for purely academic work which is not enough to produce a competent pilot.

    Those studying at Alexandria are expected to start their sea-time training next year when they come back from Egypt.

     
  • Press Release - Maria O'Brien Joins the Global Container Lines' Team

    Global Container Lines are pleased to announce that Maria O'Brien has joined their Southern African Regional Team in Johannesburg as Assistant Line Representative Southern Africa Region.

    Maria has worked for Global Container Lines' South African agents Freightmarine Shipping for the past 2 years and has been closely involved in all aspects of the GCL operation.

    Due to the exceptional growth and acceptance of the South Africa / East African / Indian Ocean / Persian Gulf Services and a great response to the upgraded service to Mozambique main ports Global Container Lines has deemed it necessary to strengthen their representation in order to better serve the needs of their clients.

    Maria has 15 years experience in the Shipping Industry, mainly in ship's agency and is a welcome asset to the Global Container Lines Team.

    Contact details (effective August 5, 2002)
    Mainline 27 11 407 2444
    Direct line 27 11 407 3005
    Direct fax 27 11 407 3029
    Mobile 27 82 327 1667
    E-mail: mobrien@gogcl.com 
    Inter-Tel: ext: 7772

     
  • Global Container Line adds new weekly service
    RESPONDING TO growing market demand, East African specialists Global Container Lines (GCL), will extend their weekly Indian Ocean Service by inaugurating calls from Nhava Sheva (JNPT) from May 9. The new weekly multi-purpose service links Mumbai and JNPT directly to Muscat and Sharjah (with connections to all Persian Gulf ports), East African ports of Mombasa, Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam (with connections by GCL's services to Nacala, Beira, Maputo, Durban, Tanga, Moroni, Mutsamudu and Mayotte). GCL also accepts cargo for Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Eastern Zaire. GCL is represented in all Indian ports by Sai Shipping, Mumbai which has done so for the past 16 years. Freightmarine Shipping is the local agent. (FTNews, Tuesday, May 07, 2002)

     
  • News Story dated Friday, March 15, 2002
    KEVIN WALKER takes on GCL challenge: Kevin Walker has
    taken over from Stephen Bell as liner executive for Global Container Line (GCL), based in Durban. Well-known in shipping circles, Walker started his career with Freightmarine in 1981 and has since notched up wide-ranging experience with John T Rennie, Access Freight and more recently Barwil where he was involved with Wilhelmsen Line until its withdrawal from South
    Africa, and Wallenius Wilhelmsen on the car-carrying side. According to Johannesburg-based GCL line representative, Doug Kennedy, volumes on the 10 day service between Durban, Maputo, Beira, Nacala, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, are maintaining and even increasing as the line
    celebrates its second year of operation.

     
  • August 24, 2001: GCL Adds direct calls to Zanzibar on the SA/EA service.
    FT Weekly
    LINE ADDS TO EAST AFRICA SERVICES
    A direct Zanzibar call has just been added to the Global Container Lines (GCL) East Africa service.

    The multi-purpose service will maintain a 10-day frequency calling at Durban, Maputo, Beira, Nacala, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

    In addition, a dedicated vessel has been brought into service loading cargo in Mombasa for Moroni, Mayotte, Mutsamudu and Tanga every 10 days.

  • August 3, 2001: GCL adds the MV "Hirma" to the Indian Ocean Islands service.

  • May 25, 2001: GCL celebrates its one year anniversary for its SAS / East Africa extension to the IOS service. Regional representative Mr. Doug Kennedy states : "We are very pleased with the market acceptance of our service and we look forward to bigger and better things to come in the near future".

  • May 1, 2001: Mr. Rajan P. Joshi has joined the GCL team as the Sales Director for East Africa.

  • April 21, 2001: GCL Launches service to the Comoros Islands with the M/V "Karin B".

  • News Story dated Wednesday, April 18, 2001:

    GCL APPOINTS LINE REP

    Global Container Lines has appointed Doug Kennedy as Johannesburg-based regional line representative.

    This coincides with an upgrade of the line's fleet 10-months after the launch of the service between SA and East Africa.

    Kennedy was previously branch manager of Rennies Ships Agency - and commercial executive for GCL since its inception.

    FTW

  • April 2, 2001: Mr. Douglas B. Kennedy has joined the GCL team as the regional line representative for Southern Africa. Mr. Kennedy will be stationed in Johannesburg.

  • September 29, 1998: GCL established a web site on the Internet.
 
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