In 2008, Arkas Line started to call at the port of Marseilles on board of the vessels of its feedering company, EMES. At that time Arkas Line was represented in France by S.M.I (Societe Maritime International) which had a long history of maritime existence in the region.
It was in 2012 that Arkas Line started to develop its own services and corridors in France. Through the Arkas Line network Fos/Marseille is connected to other ports such as Casablanca, Algeria, Alexandria, Beirut, Latakia, Haifa, Piraeus, Thessaloniki, the Black Sea ports, and finally to the Turkish ports such as Istanbul, Kocaeli, Gemlik, Aliaga/Izmir, Mersin and Iskenderun. These developments helped Arkas Line to impose its existence in the Fos/Marseilles shipping community. The development was followed by the opening of inland container depots in Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux which allowed to cover larger inland geographies connecting the Fos/Marseilles ports by rail, truck, and barge transports.
In 2013, S.M.I. and Arkas Holding in Turkey decided to solidify their cooperation by creating Arkas France, which started to act as the integrated agent of Arkas Line in France.
In addition to the already existing container volumes that were loaded and discharged at Fos/Marseille ports, Arkas France has developed an important Cross Trade activity within the Arkas Line network. Through this activity, Arkas France is able to provide its French, Belgian, and Swiss traders and shippers with all container services of Arkas Line that are available in the Mediterranean, North-West Continent, Black Sea and West Africa. Thanks to the cross sales/marketing and operation team based in Marseilles, our customers are able to book through Arkas France and ship their cargo by using Arkas Line’s service network.
Since June 2022, Arkas France established a presence in Le Havre port in Northern France, where Arkas Line started to call with its West Africa service. Through Le Havre, West African ports such as Abidjan and Tema are served together with Casablanca, Dakar but also all Mediterranean ports.
Today Arkas France, based in Marseille, is happy to offer tailor-made services to its import, export, and cross customers with its competent, capable but most importantly affable staff, which is ready to propose the optimum solution for inland and maritime transportation.