The MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A Australia Express Service has begun calling at DP World London Gateway Port, the UK's newest deep-sea terminal, following changes to the service.

The service will now provide direct calls between DP World London Gateway Port, King Abdullah port in Saudi Arabia, Colombo in Sri Lanka and ports around the Australian coast. It will be the fastest direct service between Northern Europe and Australia in the market, according to a release.

The call is a new trade lane into DP World London Gateway Port, further enhancing the suite of services on offer to UK importers and exporters. It is also a new service for the UK.

In full, the new rotation will call at DP World London Gateway Port, Antwerp, Le Havre, Fos-Sur-Mer, La Spezia, Naples, Gioia Tauro, Port Louis, Pointe des Galets, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle, Colombo, King Abdullah, Valencia, DP World London Gateway Port.

MSC Roberta made her first stop at DP World London Gateway Port marking the commencement of the weekly service.

Mr Kelvin Wilden, Operations Director, MSC UK, said: "We are pleased to announce improvements to the Australia Express service in response to customer needs.

"The Australia Express will now provide direct calls between DP World London Gateway Port and Australia, offering the fastest direct service in the market connecting Oceania with the UK and North West Continent. This service improvement will complement our competitive transit times to all other global destinations, using MSC's vast transhipment network of services.

"We already have a good working relationship with the DP World London Gateway team and this new service further enhances the extensive choice of ports that we offer to both our import and export customers."