On 13 July 2008, YICT welcomed the commencement of the new EU service from CMA CGM and CSCL, the French Asia Line-4 (FAL4) service. It will provide one of the fastest routes between Asia and Europe, the journey from Yantian to the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium taking only 22 days.
The service will also include an inbound call at Zeebrugge, the first discharge call in Europe which offers one of the best intermodal connectivity in Europe into the Benelux and German hinterland.
As CMA CGM mentioned in an earlier statement, the new service joins three other FAL services – FAL1, FAL2 and FAL3 – to cover the major ports along the Asia-Europe trade route. All four shipping services call at Yantian every week. Up till now, YICT has a total of 86 weekly shipping services, which include 31 European services, 35 American services and 9 Asian services.
Eight 9,500-TEU vessels have been deployed to the FAL4 service, which follows a port rotation of Shanghai, Xiamen, Nansha, Yantian, Port Klang, Zeebrugge, Hamburg, Rotterdam and Felixstowe.