CMA CGM Enhances Turkey-North Africa Coverage

French container shipping major CMA CGM has launched Turaf Express, a new service linking Turkey, Tunisia and Libya via Malta.

The company has deployed three 1,100 TEU containerships in the service, which commenced on January 20, 2017.

Turaf Express is said to be the first CMA CGM service to offer a direct connection between Northern Turkey (Istanbul, Gemlik and Aliaga) and the main Libyan ports (Misurata and El Khoms) in order to develop short sea intra-Mediterranean activities.

With the new container shipping service, Misurata and Sousse can be reached from Izmir in five and eleven days.

Port rotation of the Turaf Express service is as follows: Istanbul Ambarli, Gemlik, Aliaga (Turkey), Malta (Malta), Misurata, El Khoms (Libya), Sousse (Tunisia), Malta, Istanbul.