Qatar Navigation (Milaha) is to launch its first boxship service in Europe.

The company will start a direct run linking the Black Sea and Mediterranean, it said in a statement cited by Bloomberg.

This will connect Greece, Turkey, Georgia and Russia.

Ports are Athens, Istanbul, Poti and Novorossiysk.

Milaha will use two 1,700-teu ships that can also carry 300 reefer boxes.

It has not specified when the service will start.

in the first nine months of 2018, net profit was QAR 400m ($110m), compared to QAR 363m for the same period of 2017.

The mixed fleet of LNGCs, tankers, OSVs, boxships and tugs brought in revenue of QAR 1.8bn , up from QAR 1.7bn.