Folk Maritime, the Saudi feeder operator and subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), will reorganize its coverage in the Red Sea at the end of October with the introduction of a new biweekly “butterfly” type service, focused on the Port of Jeddah.
“One of its wings will cover the western coast of Saudi Arabia and the other will serve the port area of Sudan,” said Alphaliner.
“In parallel, Folk Maritime plans to suspend its SRX service, which currently connects Jeddah, Djibouti, Aden and again Jeddah, in early November. The 735 TEU vessel Banyas 2 will make its last departure from Jeddah on November 4,” it added.
The new service, aptly named the Saudi Cabotage Service (SCS), will allow Folk Maritime to once again serve the Saudi ports of King Abdullah and the specialized port area of Neom.
King Abdullah was previously served by the PSS service (Port Sudan – Jeddah), withdrawn at the beginning of the month, while Neom was part of the now-suspended NRSS, which connected Jeddah, Neom, Sokhna, Aqaba, Yanbu and Jeddah.
“Following the cancellation of the NRSS, Folk Maritime has maintained connections with Jeddah, Aqaba and Yanbu through shared slots in parts of CMA CGM’s REX2 service. This move coincided with the enhancement of the Far East – Red Sea loop, which added a second call at Jeddah, in addition to Aqaba and Qingdao at the end of September,” the consultancy said.
The new SCS will connect Jeddah, King Abdullah, Neom, King Abdullah, Jeddah, Port Sudan and again Jeddah, using the 698 TEU vessel Folk Yanbu on a biweekly frequency.
“In addition to offering coastal connections in the western provinces of the Kingdom, the new SCS will double the coverage to Port Sudan, complementing the existing PSS service, operated by the 1,868 TEU Folk Jeddah every ten days,” concluded Alphaliner.
