New liner launches out of Dubai 

A new name in liner shipping has just been launched looking to cash in on an area where container profits are still strong. 

Dubai-based CStar Line has hit the ground running with 16 announced liner services, calling at Asian and Turkish ports as well as the Russian ports of Vladivostok, Novorossiysk and Kaliningrad. 

The carrier’s CEO is Zsolt Katona, a Hungarian national with a background working for Maersk.

While most of the main global carriers have stopped servicing Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine 18 months ago, a host of names, including new liner brands, have rapidly moved to fill the gap including FESCO, Reel Shipping, New New Shipping/Torgmoll, OVP, Safetrans, Mountain Air Shipping, Neco, Modul and Global Field Line.

Box volumes at Russia’s ports have rebounded sharply, drawing in over 200,000 teu of incremental containership capacity since the end of last year, according to data from Linerlytica. Q2 Russian container volumes grew 33% year-on-year.