Last week's visit of the Nova vessel in Gdynia Container Terminal inaugurated a new service of Ellerman City Liners (ECL), represented by SAFE Shipping.

The 159-metre container ship Nova arrived at the GCT quay on Tuesday, April 18, around noon. The ship arrived in Gdynia as part of the new container service of the British shipowner Ellerman City Liners (ECL).

Thanks to a hybrid of short sea shipping and feeder service connecting Gdynia with Atlantic Ocean services based in the English port of Tilbury, Ellerman enters the Polish market with one of the shortest transit times to the east coast of the United States.

ECL ships will appear in Gdynia every Saturday. From Poland they will sail to Great Britain - first to Teesport (where they will appear on Tuesdays), then to Tilbury (Wednesdays), from where they will sail again to GCT. However, the service is organized in such a way that it enables convenient and express repackaging of goods on ocean-going ships of the same operator, plying between Great Britain and the United States or between Great Britain and ports on the Iberian Peninsula (via Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp). In this way, according to the operator's offer, the transit time from Gdynia to New York is only 16 days.

On board the Nova container ship, which was the first to call on the new connection to GCT, there were the first batches of imported goods, but above all about 550 TEU of the carrier's empty containers - 20-, 40- and 45-inch. They were first deposited at the terminal's reloading yard, and then delivered to the shippers, thanks to which they will begin to circulate on the market. After 10 days, Nova will appear at the GCT quay again to take full containers - then the new connection will officially start in the export relationship. In the meantime, the ship will be waiting at the anchorage.

- We are delighted that Ellerman City Liners will be bringing in and picking up goods through our terminal. This is a very attractive connection for customers, because it offers one of the fastest transits on the Gdynia-New York line, which is important for Polish exports. We keep our fingers crossed for the success of the service and we will support it - says Mikołaj Magiełka, Commercial Manager at Hutchison Ports Gdynia.

The Ellerman City Liners service is another short-haul connection for Hutchison Ports Gdynia, the operator of GCT. This terminal has historically specialized in handling short sea shipping, thanks to its relatively small size, giving it the greater flexibility necessary to handle short sea services.

The Nova container ship, which will be the first to cover the route from Poland to Great Britain, is a vessel built in 2002 with a capacity of 966 teu. It is 159 meters long. It flies the flag of Germany. The operator's fleet also includes ships Kirstin Schepers (140 m, 803 teu), Windswept (224 m, 2,872 teu), Cape Hellas (186 m, 2,700 teu), Buxfavourite (208 m, 2,450 teu), Mona Lisa (231 m , 3,534 teu) and SC Mara (294 m, 5,060 teu).

The Polish agent of Ellerman City Liners is SAFE Shipping from Gdynia, which is part of the European transport group USS United Shipping Services.