Maersk is launching a new dedicated New Zealand coastal service, “Maersk Coastal Connect”, to enable a more resilient supply chain and improve vessel schedule reliability.
The first of its kind for Maersk in its 25 years of operational history in the country, this service is expected to help enhance domestic connection and offer sustainable and flexible supply chain solutions for importers, exporters and domestic distributors.
By deploying two 2,500 TEU container vessels, Maersk Nadi and Maersk Nansha on a weekly basis, five main ports* in New Zealand, namely Timaru, Lyttelton, Nelson, Auckland and Tauranga will be covered respectively in the service rotation, enhancing connectivity and providing easy access to Maersk’s global network. The combined North to South and South to North capacity will reach 250,000 TEU each year.
Maersk Coastal Connect will start on July 12th. The service will be operated with New Zealand crew to support the local community and ensure continued to investment in New Zealand.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world in many ways, and one of them in the logistics industry is customers’ increasing needs for more visible and resilient local and global supply chains,” says Henrik Jensen, Managing Director of Maersk Oceania. “By operating two dedicated vessels, we can position empty containers to the right places more efficiently to meet export requirements. At the same time, we are enabling more than four days of additional schedule buffer to reduce impact from the supply chain disruptions, including port congestion, tidal windows, swell, lower port productivity and longer port stay. This will ensure smooth connections to our international mainliner network and benefit more than 2,000 cargo owners in the country,”
As the world is still experiencing serious consequences of Covid-19 on global supply chains with unprecedented delays and reduced carrying capacity, Maersk Coastal Connect is designed to respond proactively to the continued challenges, says Jensen.
“With sea freight being the most environmental-friendly mode of transportation, it has a significant potential to reduce CO2 emissions. Based on GLEC methodology to calculate the representative cargo volumes, Maersk Coastal Connect is estimated to enable forty-three thousand tonnes of CO2 savings per year compared to landside trucking service, contributing to Maersk’s 2030 targets for significant absolute emissions reductions,” says My Therese Blank, Head of Market, Maersk Oceania.
The additional investment of a dedicated New Zealand coastal service, in conjunction with recent announcement to build a cold chain facility in Hamilton, will create huge value for customers in the New Zealand market, she says.. Maersk’s expanded local product portfolios in coastal shipping, warehousing, cold chain solutions, landside delivery and value-added services will connect New Zealand in new ways and enhance the overall product offering in the country, to further connect and simplify customers supply chains and provide integrated and flexible solutions.
*Timaru, Nelson and Tauranga = Weekly Coverage | Auckland and Nelson = fortnightly coverage
