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Maltese hub

Mediterranean island eyes transshipment business from India.

India?s rising role in world trade has caught the attention of maritime countries across the world. Malta is one such country. This Mediterranean country has invited Indian companies to use its free port as a transshipment hub for transfer of goods to Europe and north Africa.

Located at the intersection of Europe, Africa and Asia, Malta enjoys a key place in India?s trading history. It used to supply coal to the British steamships originating from imperial India and passing through the Suez Canal, and also acted as a hub for Indian goods destined for Europe and South America.

It is this rich past that Malta now seeks to revive in its maritime ties with India.

While Indian companies have been registering ships in this former British colony to benefit from its attractive fiscal and regulatory policies, Malta would like to expand this relationship to other maritime areas like transshipment and repairing. ?With the opening up of the north African market following the political changes there, our importance as a trading hub has only increased,? said Joe Degabriele, chief operations officer of Transport Malta, the government body mandated to promote and develop the transport sector in Malta.

India is currently negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), which Malta joined in 2004. The pact is expected to give a fillip to India?s trade with the EU. Currently, EU is India?s largest trading partner, accounting for around 20% of its trade.

?Thanks to its geographical location, vessels can call at Malta with a deviation of just six nautical miles between Gibraltar and the Suez Canal,? explained Degabriele. This results in drastic reductions in the duration of delivery of goods and cost savings in the distribution system, Malta Freeport claims. Besides, shipping lines calling at Malta can serve both east and west Mediterranean markets with a single mainline call, in addition to the newly emerging markets in north Africa.

A freight airport is located just six kilometres from the Freeport, which can facilitate multi-modal transport of time-sensitive goods like flowers and fish.

Established in 1988, Malta Freeport was the first transshipment hub in the Mediterranean region. Over 95% of the Freeport’s container traffic is transshipment. It is connected to 130 ports worldwide though regular liner services.

Since privatisation in 2004, the Freeport has invested heavily in state-of-the-art facilities dedicated to transshipment and worldwide regular network connections. Currently, it handles around 3 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) per annum. The port has a total operational deep water quay of 2,140 metres, area of 680,000 square metres, 15,085 container ground slots and 894 reefer points.

(Travel for this report was sponsored by Malta Enterprise, Government of Malta)

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First published on: 12-12-2012 at 02:35 IST
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