On 3 November 2008, the "Al Rawdah", deployed by the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) to its new EU service, made its inaugural call at Yantian. The new Asia-Europe Container Service2 (AEC2) has been deployed, comprising a total of eight A7-class mega vessels, each with a 6,919-TEU capacity.
Its first port of call is Rotterdam, a preferred direct call port. The new EU service is also one of the few to call at Thamesport. The AEC2 service calls at Yantian every Monday with a port rotation of Shanghai, Xiamen, Yantian, Singapore, Jeddah, Suez Canal, Rotterdam, Thamesport, Bremerhaven, Antwerp, Suez Canal, Khor Fakkan, Singapore and Shanghai.
Initially UASC launched regular services at Jeddah, primarily working to serve the Middle East region. Now, via its AEC2 service, the journey from Yantian to Jeddah takes only 12 days – seven days less than what other services in the market offer, making it the fastest service in the Middle East.
UASC was jointly established in July 1976 by the six shareholding Arabian Gulf states (Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE). The head office is located in the State of Kuwait. UASC is one of the largest ocean carriers of dry cargo to the Middle East.