From top to toe
The French line CMA CGM has introduced a Mediterranean service, improving connections between Turkey and southern Italy. Railway links to northern Italy will augment the calls. Options to and from Malta and Tunisia remain.
On 10 July Marseille-based CMA CGM, which is currently ranked the fourth-largest shipping line in the world, added a call at the Apulian port of Taranto (Italy) to its TurMed service. This southern Italian option effectively links up Turkey, Tunisia and Europe via the French group’s Malta hub. Four 1,100 teu vessels will be deployed in the service.
The company’s latest move means that goods being shipped between Italy and Turkey now reach their final destinations after a mere three days in transit. The on-forwarding of the consignments provides an intermodal add-on too; daily train departures from the port of Taranto serve central and northern Italy, with direct links to the important centres of trade and industry Milan, Piacenza, Bologna, Jesi and Marcianise.
The TurMed service will continue to call in Tunisia as well as at the port of Malta, one of the CMA CGM Group’s key regional maritime hubs. CMA CGM was proud to point out that this new intermodal option has thus perfected a cross-Mediterranean solution.
