DUNKERQUE: The Ocean Three alliance of CMA CGM, China Shipping Container Line (CSCL) and the United Arab Shipping Company that began calling at Dunkerque in February, now has an inland waterway transshipment link to Lille and Dourges in France's Pas-de-Calais region.

Nord Port Shuttle (NPS) in now guaranteeing to reload alliance containers on one of its barges every Saturday and deliver overnight for discharge in Dourges on Monday morning and Lille in the afternoon.

As a result, Shanghai-originating containers can be delivered door-to-door in 30 days via Dunkerque and NPS under a "super-simple" Customs procedure says the port.

NPS chairman Christophe Thebaud commented: "From the first call, the idea of express transshipment has been welcomed by many shippers, as proved by the excellent filling rates already achieved for the weekend barge."

Dunkerque port CEO Stéphane Raison added: "In this innovative system, NPS has succeeded in combining the conventional economic and environmental advantages of waterway transport with the equally important concept of optimized transit time."

NPS is a local waterway service operated by a public/private partnership between the port of Dunkerque, Compagnie Fluviale de Transport (CFT), the Grand Lille Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIGL), and the Flanders Terminal.

In October 2013 NPS began operating a scheduled twice-weekly quay-to-quay container service between Dunkerque's Flanders Terminal and the terminals of Lille and Dourges providing an annual capacity of 15,000 TEUs.