K-LINE has started making direct calls at the ports of Felixstowe and Hamburg on its intra-European short-sea service, Ibesco.
Malcolm Keast, manager of short-sea services at K-Line Europe, said: 'We can pick up cargo in Felixstowe on Saturday, in Newcastle on Sunday, and have it in Gothenburg by Tuesday morning.' The new schedule allows K-Line to offer some of the fastest transit times available between Britain and Scandinavia, and the company expects traffic from both Felixstowe and Newcastle to increase significantly.
K-Line will continue to use the 500-teu vessels Scandinavian Bridge and Iberian Bridge for the weekly service.
The full rotation takes in Rotterdam, Lisbon, Leixoes, Felixstowe, Newcastle, Gothenberg, Hamburg and back to Rotterdam.
Mr Keast said the Felixstowe and Hamburg calls had been made in response to the introduction of K-Line's new liner service between Europe and Asia.
Both loops of the Europe-Asia service called at Hamburg. One made weekly calls at Rotterdam, and one stopped at Antwerp. Therefore, the Ibesco schedule had to be changed.