Swiss-Based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has inaugurated its new European service - JADE - with the recent port call of the MSC Endurance at Xiamen International Container Terminals (XICT), which is partly owned by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Group.

A HPH statement said the JADE service calls at XICT every Monday and has a port rotation of Singapore, Xiamen, Yantian, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Singapore, Suez, Valencia, Jeddah and Singapore.

The service provides an express outbound gateway from Xiamen to Europe with a transit time of 25 days from Xiamen to Valencia. Seven other 8,000-TEU mega-vessels will be deployed on the service during the peak season starting this month.

Raymond Chan, general manager of XICT, said: "The booming trade between Southeast China and Europe has significantly increased the shipping demand in the region. Our leading productivity and excellent customer-oriented services attract top shipping lines from all over the world to choose XICT as their preferred port of call in Xiamen."

Mr. Chan pointed out that XICT's attraction was its excellent berthing conditions at the Fujian gateway. "A total quay length of 1,083 metres and a depth alongside 17.5 metres enables us to handle the influx of cargo and the growing number of mega-vessels efficiently, which distinguishes XICT from other ports in the region. We are committed to offering just-in-time logistics services to both carriers and shippers all year round," he said.

Xiamen port handled 2.59 million TEU from January to July, an increase of 13.54 per cent over the same period last year, Xinhua reports.

The container volume included 2.22 million TEU of foreign trade, which was up 10.3 per cent, and 365,200 TEU of domestic trade, which surged by 38.6 per cent year on year.