Maersk Line’s subsidiary MCC Transport has launched a new direct route between Myanmar
and China – Intra Asia 5 (IA5) on February 4th February. This new route links Myan- mar directly to its biggest trade partner, accounting about 45% of all Myanmar’s im- ports to Asia.
MCC Transport’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Wickmann said, “Growth in imports and increased investments in the last few years have facilitated further trade between Myanmar and other Asian economies, and we expect trade volumes in Myanmar to grow significantly.”
Bo Wegener, Maersk Line Thailand Manag- ing Director (overseeing Thailand, Myan- mar and Laos) said, “Current trade is main- ly to other Asian countries such as China, Vietnam and Thailand, we see future poten- tial for Myanmar’s exports to other markets such as the United States and Europe.”
The new IA5 service will reduce the tran- sit time of former 18 days to 13 days from ports in China to Yangon.This is already in addition to two other separate services from Singapore and Malaysia to Yangon.
MCC Transport will deploy eight 1,100 TEU vessels on this service, which covers ports including Shanghai (China), Singapore, Port Klang (Malaysia), Sihanoukville (Cam- bodia), Busan (South Korea) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam).
Maersk Line and MCC have made their presence in Myanmar two years ago through substantial investments in service expansion into the Port of Yangon. They first started running by purchasing space from other shipping lines and now operating their own dedicated two weekly and one biweekly services.
