ICTSI Georgia receives TBX1 inaugural call
BATUMI International Container Terminal (BICT), a subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), received the inaugural vessel call of Cosco Shipping Lines’ subsidiary, Diamond Line’s TBX1 service.
BICT CEO Nikoloz Gogoli was excited after the port was selected by Cosco Shipping as its terminal of choice in Georgia for both all water and rail-bound cargo. “We look forward to a successful partnership with Diamond Line and the other members of the China Cosco Shipping Group,” he said.
The 1,200-TEU TBX1 feeder service commenced its weekly calls at BICT in late October with the arrival of MV AS Fatima. The new service directly calls at the Port of Piraeus in the Mediterranean, Cosco Shipping’s Med hub, from where Batumi and the Caucus region are connected to the rest of the world.
“The new services highlight the strategic importance of our port to facilitate both regional and global trade, and present us with a good opportunity to further expand our role in the region,” Gogoli said.
The ports in the service rotation include Istanbul in Turkey, and the ports of Constanta in Romania and Varna in Bulgaria in the Black Sea, which enable a weekly and short transit time connection within the region.
The Middle Corridor containers to and from block trains can be loaded into this Diamond Line feeder service for further connection with Europe, to and from Constanta port. This new land bridge provides shippers from Asia with a competitive transit time to the Caucus markets and, via the port of Batumi, to the rest of the Mediterranean region and especially with Constanta port.
BICT operates a multipurpose terminal at the Port of Batumi in Georgia. It has been active since 2007 when it acquired a 48-year lease to operate a multipurpose terminal with exclusivity for container handling.