Southern Star Service to switch to Tauranga

Southern Star Service to switch to Tauranga

Shipping company Maersk Line New Zealand has confirmed schedule changes that will see its weekly Southern Star service call at Tauranga rather than Auckland.

The company’s Northern Star service will continue to call at Auckland.

The “Two Stars” provide New Zealand-based shippers with direct access to the Asian hub ports of Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas.

Maersk Line New Zealand trade & Marketing Manager Dave Gulik said he did not expect a material change to total transit times for local exporters and importers.

“Most of the export cargoes we currently ship out of Auckland are coming out of the Waikato-Bay of Plenty region, and those exporters’ transport and logistics operations tend to be port-neutral,” Mr Gulik said.

“Imports coming into Auckland are generally destined for the major distribution hubs in South Auckland, which are served by Port of Tauranga’s inland MetroPort. Any change to total transit time one way or the other is likely to be a matter of hours at the most,” he said.

Mr Gulik said industrial unrest at Ports of Auckland had played a part in Maersk’s decision to alter the service.

“The security of their supply chain is of primary importance to our customers, so anything affecting that, or likely to affect that in the future, will come into the equation when we are deciding schedules,” he said.

Maersk currently operates the Northern Star and Southern Star services in conjunction with Malaysian Line MISC Berhad, which last month announced plans to exit the container shipping business in June next year.

Mr Gulik said Maersk intended to maintain the Two Stars in their present form after MISC withdrew, meaning Maersk’s New Zealand customers would continue to enjoy the same level of coverage and the same connections to the company’s global networks.

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