Maersk launches dedicated New Zealand coastal service

Container logistics giant Maersk has launched a new dedicated coastal service in New Zealand that is aiming to enable a more resilient supply chain in the country and improve vessel schedule reliability.

“Maersk Costal Connect” will deploy two 2,500 TEU container vessels, Maersk Nadi and Maersk Nansha, which will provide weekly coverage of Timaru, Lyttelton, Tauranga, and fortnightly coverage of Auckland and Nelson.

Maersk said that the combined North to South and South to North capacity will reach 250,000 TEU each year.

The new shipping service will start on 12 July 2022 and will be operated with a local crew.

The Danish line said it is the first of its kind in its 25 years of operational history in the country.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world in many ways, and one of them in the logistics industry is customers’ increasing needs for more visible and resilient local and global supply chains,” said Henrik Jensen, Managing Director of Maersk Oceania.

“By operating two dedicated vessels, we can position empty containers to the right places more efficiently to meet export requirements,” Jensen said.

He continued that this will also enable more than 4 days of additional schedule buffer to reduce impact from the supply chain disruptions, including port congestion, tidal windows, swell, lower port productivity and longer port stay.

“This will ensure smooth connections to our international mainliner network and benefit more than 2,000 cargo owners in the country,” he said.

Apart from enhancing domestic connection, the new coastal service will offer sustainable and flexible supply chain solutions for importers, exporters and domestic distributors.

“With Sea freight being the most environmental-friendly mode of transportation, it has a significant potential to reduce CO2 emissions,” said My Therese Blank, Head of Market at Maersk Oceania.

“Based on GLEC methodology to calculate the representative cargo volumes, Maersk Coastal Connect is estimated to enable forty-three thousand tonnes of CO2 savings per year compared to landside trucking service, contributing to Maersk’s 2030 targets for significant absolute emissions reductions,” Blank said.

Related: Maersk orders $1.4 billion carbon-neutral container ships

Maersk said that the additional investment of a dedicated New Zealand coastal service, in conjunction with recent announcement to build a cold chain facility in Hamilton, will create huge value for customers in the New Zealand market.

Source: Maersk