The national shipping line, Maldives State Shipping (MSS), has officially launched its services.
The service of the national shipping line was officially launched with the docking of the MSS ship, MV Iberian Express, in Male’ today. The ship was welcomed to Maldives with a water salute, after which a special ceremony was held to officially launch the services of MSS. The ceremony was attended by Managing Director of MSS Abdulla Saeed and Managing Director of State Trading Organisation (STO) Hussain Amr as well as senior officials of Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) and Maldives Customs Service.
MSS was formed as a subsidiary company of STO. The company was formed with the purpose of facilitating the import of items through a local company at low prices.
MV Iberian Express is a cargo ship with a capacity of 700 containers. The ship includes special containers to carry frozen food items as well as containers to carry common goods.
The items brought on MV Iberian Express include staple food items and medicine. Maldives Customs Service has issued permission to unload the items on the ship.
STO expects to generate high revenue by establishing its own shipping line. The organisation states it would reduce the losses caused by having to purchase items from foreign ships at inflated prices.