Cosco Container Lines (Coscon) - a wholly owned subsidiary of Cosco Holdings - plans to expand its Red Sea service to cope with rising Middle East demand.
'The company is keen to explore and develop new markets,' said secretary of the board of directors, Zhang Yongjian.
The company said it was looking at other potential markets in India and Central and South America.
While Coscon had been calling at Red Sea ports on its Asia-Europe route, the boom in Middle East demand has seen it enter an agreement with Evergreen and Hapag-Lloyd to merge their existing Red Sea services - the Far East Red Sea service and the Straits Red Sea Express service.
This now becomes a single service linking China, Southeast Asia and the Red Sea.
The new service is expected to sail with greater frequency and have better port coverage.
The weekly sailings are scheduled to begin next month with six vessels carrying a combined 2,700 20-foot equivalent units.