Ports of Auckland welcomes two new services

Port welcomes two new services

September 2013 will see two new services call at Ports of Auckland - MSC’s Capricorn Service, which currently calls at a number of New Zealand ports and Kiwi International Express (KIX), a new vessel sharing arrangement between ANL, APL and Hanjin Shipping.

Both services will link New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia. While the KIX is a recently formed service, the Capricorn service is MSC’s main service calling New Zealand.

“Auckland has traditionally been an import dominant port, but these two services also offer us great export potential between Auckland, Australia and South East Asia,” Ports of Auckland Chief Executive Tony Gibson said.

The first vessel in the Capricorn Service will call at Auckland on 5 September and the KIX service will begin calling here from 24 September.

“Over the past year we have injected a new energy in the way we work and are beginning to see results,” Mr Gibson said. “We’re delighted to see these two services calling at Auckland and we’re committed to continuing the on-going improvement in our service to customers.”

Shipping lines are particularly focussed on how quickly ports service their ships (the ‘ship rate’). The quarterly container handling statistics as reported by the Ministry of Transport show a 19% increase in Auckland’s annual ship rate (containers per hour per ship) in the last quarter of the 2012/13 financial year, compared to the same period last financial year. The MoT stats are available at http://www.transport.govt.nz/ourwork/TMIF/Pages/FT022.aspx.

Ports of Auckland Ltd is the port for New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. In 2012/13 it handled 808,655 TEU (1 TEU is a standard twenty foot container), around 1,500 ship calls and 3.8m tonnes of break-bulk (non-containerised) cargo. It is New Zealand’s leading import port, New Zealand’s premier cruise port and the country’s main vehicle import gateway. A key partner to export and import industries, Ports of Auckland is 100%-owned by Auckland Council.

ENDS

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