CMA CGM has announced the launch of KORA EXPRESS, a new direct service between northern Europe and West Africa that incorporates Algeciras and Tangier Med as connection stops with the group’s global network. The first departure is scheduled for August 26, 2026, from Southampton, with the vessel Navios Verano as the pioneer of the rotation.
The line will operate weekly and will be fully managed by CMA CGM, without participation from external partners, with a fleet of ships with a nominal capacity of 4,200 TEUs. The complete rotation covers nine stops: Southampton, Flushing, Antwerp, Tangier Med, Algeciras, Tema, Lekki, Cotonou, and Dakar. The French shipping line notes that the new service will offer the fastest transit times in the market to Ghana, <a href="https://absafricatv.com/france-president-announces-plan-to-visit-nigeria/” title=”France President announces plan to visit Nigeria”>Nigeria, and Benin, with a journey of 15 days between Antwerp and Tema as a commercial reference.
The inclusion of Algeciras and Tangier Med in the rotation has a strategic component for the operations of the French group. Both ports serve as hubs for transshipment in the Strait corridor and allow linking KORA EXPRESS cargo with CMA CGM services to the Mediterranean, North America, Latin America, and Asia. The company completely or partially owns container terminal facilities on both sides of the Strait, a factor that facilitates the coordination of calls and transshipments between vessels on different routes.
In parallel with the debut of KORA EXPRESS, CMA CGM has reorganized its EURAF 5 service, which until now covered a broader range of African ports and which from this movement concentrates on the so-called West Africa South Range. The new EURAF 5 rotation will connect Tangier Med with Nouakchott, Kribi, Libreville, Pointe Noire, and Luanda, and will provide direct coverage to Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, and Angola. The shipping line presents both routes as complementary services: KORA EXPRESS takes care of traffic between northern Europe and the western Gulf of Guinea, while EURAF 5 specializes in the central-southern facade of the continent.
The call of KORA EXPRESS in Algeciras occurs at a time when the Bay port maintains its role as the main hub for transshipment in southern Europe and competes with Tangier Med for capturing traffic from major container shipping lines. The coincidence of both locations in the same weekly rotation reinforces the dual call model in the Strait, commonly used by global operators, who take advantage of the geographical proximity of the two terminals to distribute volumes and balance connection times with the rest of the network.
The design of the rotation indicates a logic of cargo collection in northern Europe, transshipment in the Strait arch, and distribution to West Africa. Southampton, Flushing, and Antwerp concentrate the origins of European cargo, while Tema (Ghana), Lekki (Nigeria), Cotonou (Benin), and Dakar (Senegal) represent the most commercially dynamic destination markets in the area. The 4,200 TEU vessels occupy an intermediate segment, suitable for routes that combine relevant capacity with operational flexibility in African ports that still present draft and productivity limitations compared to major European or Asian terminals.
CMA CGM emphasizes that the global connectivity of KORA EXPRESS will be articulated through its two Strait platforms. From Algeciras and Tangier Med, the line’s cargo will be able to link with services to North America, Latin America, and the Mediterranean, in addition to receiving volumes from Asia. This scheme converts the Algeciras-Tangier Med axis into a central hub of the new service, both for cargo with origins and destinations in the rotation itself and for transit flows to other markets.
The movement occurs in a generalized adjustment exercise of services between Europe and West Africa by major shipping lines, which seek to adapt their rotations to the evolution of maritime trade with the African continent and to the development of new ports like Lekki, which began operations in 2023 and appears for the first time integrated into the design of a direct line between northern Europe and the Gulf of Guinea. The combination of KORA EXPRESS and the new EURAF 5 allows CMA CGM to cover the entire African Atlantic arc with two differentiated services, with Tangier Med as a common articulation point between both.
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CMA CGMKORA EXPRESSNorthern EuropeÁfrica OccidentalnavierasPuerto de AlgecirasConectividad
