Shipping
P&O Nedlloyd Puts New Ship on Island Run
Pacific Forum Line unhappy about competition.
Already intense competition for cargo on the New Zealand-Fiji shipping route has been heightened with a decision by P&O Nedlloyd to bring in a new container ship.
The 150 TEU capacity Baltimar Boreas began operating on a New Zealand-Fiji-New Caledonia route from May 25. It operates fixed-day sailings once a fortnight, in a triangular rotation calling at Auckland, Noumea, Lautoka and Suva. The arrival of foreign competition hasn¹t been welcomed by the Pacific Islands governments-owned Pacific Forum Line.
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It was forced into code-sharing deals with other competitors on Australia-New Zealand-Pacific Islands routes when competition drove rates down to below levels needed to sustain profitability at a time of soaring fuel and other costs.
P&O Nedlloyd's managing director in New Zealand, Gary Quirke, said the Baltimar Boreas service presented more opportunities for trade in the region and a regular connection at Auckland with his company's global service network to Europe, South East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, North Asia, China and Africa.
-American Samoa's Inter-island Shipping Corp plans next year to embark on services to Samoa, Niue, Cook Islands and Vava'u, in northern Tonga. The idea: Delivering "cheap fuel and American goods" to "our Pacific Islands cousins", according to the company¹s president, Wallace Thompson. He said the first service would go to Savai'i, Samoa, in competition against the Samoa Government-owned ship, Lady Naomi. The American Samoa government privatised ocean transportation early this year after losing heavily with its own attempts to run a service from Pago Pago to two of the territory's outer islands, Manu'a and Swains.
-The WalIis and Futuna government has called for tenders for the supply or construction of a ship suitable to operate a Wallis/Fiji/New Caledonia service.
-Japan has agreed to contribute US$18.9 million to the extension of the port of Apia. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and the Japanese Ambassador to Samoa, Koichi Matsumoto, exchanged notes of agreement in June. Apia's present wharf has reached the limits of its handling capacity.
