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United Arab Shipping Co. plans to join the EPIC Service between the Indian subcontinent and North Europe operated until now independently by CMA CGM.

The cooperation agreement, which will go into effect in January 2015, follows the exit of OOCL from the EPIC as a vessel provider in April last year.

The weekly EPIC has the following 56-day round-trip rotation: Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru) and Mundra, India; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Malta; Tangier, Morocco; Southampton, U.K.; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Hamburg, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; Dunkirk and Le Havre, France; Port Said (East), Egypt; Djibouti; Khor al Fakkan, Oman; Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates; Karachi, Pakistan; and back to Nhava Sheva.

The independent service currently uses eight ships of around 6,500 20-foot-equivalent units capacity.

“This will enable UASC India to expand and upgrade the scope of the Europe product and also offer new destinations such as the U.K. and Dunkirk (France),” the Middle East carrier said in a release.

On a much larger scale, UASC and CMA CGM, along with China Shipping Container Lines, plan to launch early next year an alliance focused on the Asia-Europe, trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trade lanes. The Ocean Three is a response to the 2M, a massive vessel-sharing agreement Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. plan to launch in January.