Media release
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Tuesday 1st February 2005 |
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Just before Christmas, Maersk Sealand announced that its Oceania Service would call at Auckland on its southbound leg from the USA and Central America from December 2004.
This was followed by an announcement from Mediterranean Shipping Company that a new two-ship service will call weekly at Auckland from March or April 2005.
A further volume boost will occur when CP Ships' recently announced restructure of its trans-Tasman roll-on roll-off service results in the service leaving Tauranga to hub on Auckland from March 2005.
The combined effect of these new services is expected to be a shift of over 35,000 TEU per annum to the Port of Auckland.
Ports of Auckland's Volumes Index update, released today, confirms that the total volume of containers for the 12 months to the end of December 2004 was down 2% to 644,688 TEU, as compared with the 12 months to December 2003. This drop in container numbers is due mainly to the loss of a shipping service in February 2004 that at the time had accounted for 8% of Ports of Auckland's container volume.
Congestion on the west coast of the USA adversely affected Ports of Auckland's volumes in November and December 2004 by an estimated 1,000 TEU in each of those two months. The temporary reconfigurations by some shipping lines to avoid that congestion are expected to return to normal services in February or March 2005.
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