Shipping
Samoa, Tonga Getting New Ships for Forum Routes
Now who wants to buy Fua Kavenga?
Wanted. A buyer for Tonga's veteran container ship, Fua Kavenga. For 23 years, the Tonga Government-owned vessel has plied the South Pacific under charter to the Pacific Forum Line (PFL), which is owned by a consortium of island governments.
A replacement is being built in China as a sister-ship to one built for Samoa. Pacific Forum Line will bring the Samoan ship into service in July. The trouble for Tonga is that the engines of the Fua Kavenga, which structurally has quite some life left in her, burn a fuel mix which costs more than the heavy oil in engines shipowners prefer now.
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Samoa sold its ship, a sister to Fua Kavenga, to a Norwegian buyer and about July 16 is due to take delivery of the new vessel, to be called Forum Samoa 2.
The new ship is a US$10.5 million joint investment by German interests, the Samoa Government and Pacific Forum Line. The next Tongan ship, Fua Kavenga 2, is an investment by the government and Forum Line. It is due for delivery next December or January. Pacific Forum Line has chartered the ships for eight years and has an option to buy them. The 8000-tonners will carry 654 containers, 70 to 80 reefer (refrigerated) containers and also break bulk cargo. A forward hold is for coconut and other vegetable oil cargo. They will cruise at about 14.5 knots.Crews would be Pacific Islanders, with some of the officers German.
Pacific Forum Line is headquartered at Auckland, New Zealand and operates between Australia, New Zealand, and a dozen Pacific Islands ports.
Chief executive John MacLennan told Pacific Magazine it was engaged in negotiations with code-share partner shipping companies on future arrangements for operating services from Australia to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands Arrangements with Neptune Line, Pacific Direct Line and Reef Shipping were a development out of airline type code-sharing arrangement, he said.
The idea was to cut the number of ships used by the partners from three to two.
He said Pacific Forum Line had a slight financial loss for 2000. But it did well considering the impact on its costs caused by rocketing fuel prices, loss of trade caused by the Fiji political crisis and the weakening of New Zealand and Australian currencies against the US dollar.
