New service boost for port

The Port of Tauranga is the only New Zealand port on the world's second largest container shipping line's new service commencing in October.

Mediterranean Shipping Company has announced it will use the Port of Tauranga as a hub port in this new service.


Port of Tauranga.

MSC national operations director Mark Godfrey says the new service, the Oceania Express Service, has a port rotation of: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Tauranga, Balboa, Long Beach, Melbourne.

'MSC recognises the Port of Tauranga as a major New Zealand hub, and we plan to trans-ship cargo from six other New Zealand ports, utilising our three other services currently operating in New Zealand; Capricorn, Kiwi and Pacific Island services,” says Mark.

Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns says this is excellent news for Tauranga.

'We are delighted that MSC has chosen Tauranga as its New Zealand hub port and this announcement provides another tangible example of the structural change that is occurring in the New Zealand port sector.

'We are undertaking significant capital expenditure at the container terminal over the next few years to ensure that we continue to provide our customers with world class levels of productivity.”

Owing to this new service, and five others recently announced, the Port of Tauranga is forecasting an increase in container volumes by about 20-25 per cent, compared to year ended June 2011. About 40 per cent of this increase is attributed to trans-shipped cargo.

Port of Tauranga commercial manager Graeme Marshall says the feeder services bring cargo to Tauranga from Bluff, Port Chalmers and Lyttelton, where it is dropped off at Tauranga and transferred onto the new service.

'It's a trend that's occurring where they go to one port in New Zealand and use other services to connect to it,” says Graeme.

'What it does is it gives them access to other markets that they don't currently serve.

'MSC was primarily trans Tasman, Pacific Islands, and they have got Asia-Europe via Asia.

'This one gives them access to North America and Europe via Balboa, so it really gives them worldwide coverage.”

In May, the Port of Tauranga announced three new weekly container services calling at the port.
Singapore based Pacific International Lines in July began a service coming out of the west coast of the United States, calling Melbourne and Sydney in Australia and then Tauranga, before heading back to Brisbane, Taiwan and China.
In June, MSC added Tauranga as its only New Zealand call into the rotation of its existing Noumea service, which previously sailed between Australia and Noumea.
Maersk line is from this month adding Tauranga in the rotation to the international trans-shipment hubs of Port Kelang and Tanjung Pelepas.

This weekly service replaces the smaller Pacific Island service calling fortnightly at Tauranga.
The changes add an additional 130 ship calls per year in Tauranga.

You may also like....

0 comments

Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.