OMAN Container Line (OCL), the container shipping arm of Oman Shipping Company (OSC), is expanding the port rotation of its Gulf Express Service (GEX) by adding a call at Port Sultan Qaboos.

This fixed-day weekly service that was initially launched in February of this year connects Salalah and Jebel Ali using the 1,730-TEU Altonia.

From May 19, the GEX will call at Port Sultan Qaboos every Saturday. The service currently calls at Salalah every Thursday and Jebel Ali every Sunday.

The company said in a statement that the "natural extension" of this service is intended to create "for the first time a common user container feeder service between shipping lines offering international transshipment connections in Salalah and the Muscat market."

OCL is a regional feeder operator and fully-owned subsidiary of Oman Shipping Company, which is in turn owned by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman through the Ministry of Finance (80 per cent) and Oman Oil Company SAOC (20 per cent).