The service was launched in July in collaboration with Pacific International Lines. All direct call vessels are arriving fully loaded and every week there is one vessel calling to China from Kolkata. The service is particularly capitalizing on the growing exports from China and the Far East markets into India and this trend is expected to continue in the near future. It has significantly cut down the transit time from 45 days to 15 days.
The China-Calcutta service has three dedicated vessels — Kota Ria, Kota Rukun, and Kota Rakyat — each with an average parcel load of 622 TEUs, specially tailored to navigate lower draft conditions.