After a pilot in 2015, the French container/shipping company CMA CGM began a successful weekly container service from the Port of Vlissingen to West Africa last year. This so-called EURAF 1 service directly connects Vlissingen with West Africa or with the important logistic hub-ports Tangier Med and Algeciras at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. The service is executed by CMA CGM with six boats of around 3,500 TEU.
The load currently still consists mostly of containers with potatoes and onions, but containers with other loads are by now also transported to Vlissingen from the new Kramer City depot in Rotterdam, via inland shipping, in order to be transported by the service of CMA CGM. This additional load strengthens the successful year-round container service of CMA CGM from the Port of Vlissingen, and fits the strategy of Zeeland Seaports to increase the transfer of containers.