A.P. Moller–Maersk Group intends to relaunch container shipping to New Zeland!

Maersk was founded almost 113 years ago in Denmark and right now is the largest container shipping and supply vessel operator in the world.

A.P. Moller–Maersk's independent APM Terminals business unit with its separate headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, operates a Global Port, Terminal and Inland Services Network  in 57 ports and container terminals in 36 countries on five continents, as well as inland services operations in 48 countries. 

Previously Maersk was providing container shipping service to Wellington,but the earthquake in  Kaikoura, November 2016, caused  getting out of order the port’s gantry cranes, and they are still going to be repaired by this September.

As soon as Wellington port operator CentrePort completes works that will allow its ship-to-shore cranes to operate, the service will be restored.

“CentrePort has kept us fully informed of its progress over the last nine months and we are very pleased to return to Wellington with our weekly Northern Star service,” - Gerard Morrison, Maersk Line Oceania’s Managing Director.

UK's port of Tilbury has completed with the statutory consultation process about building a new port terminal Tilbury2, on the Thames close to the current port. The port will now submit a formal application for a Development consent order (DCO) to the Planning inspectorate this autumn.

We will now develop new proposals for a new port in a formal statement to be held in the autumn We were one of the largest ports in the South East and our customers look for expansion opportunities, as per Peter Ward, commercial director at the Port of Tilbury.

The terminal Tilbury2 will act as a satellite of the main port and is proposed to be a roll on/roll Off (RORO) ferry terminal for import and export the container and trailers.

Higher Revenues for OOCL 

Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) posted a total revenue of USD 2.59 billion for the first half of 2017, which is a 15.2% rise compared to last year. 

The container carrier stated that the volume of cargo rose 6.8% to 3,086,676 TEUs. Average revenue per TEU saw an increase of 7.8%.

The Intra-Asia / Australasia sector was the only underperformer for the period (5.2% drop in volume), offset by the Trans-Pacific, Asia / Europe (23.1% rise in volume) and Trans-Atlantic (8%) routes.

Panama Canal lock will be under repairs

As per Panama Canal Authority (ACP), starting on July 31 and up until August 10,  the east lane of Miraflores Locks will be out of service due to the repair work. It is reported that on August 10 the Gatun Locks lane will be out of service for bulkhead removal, and is scheduled to be returned to normal operations on August 11.  The booking slot available during the auction process, and the slots for Neopanamax ships, will continue to be offered during this period, according to ACP.

Hapag-Lloyd Expanding Turkey Business

Germany's Hapag-Lloyd will boost its Turkish operations once the integration of the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) is complete.

Hapag-Lloyd Turkey recently became the third biggest carrier in the Turkish market. The company expects to grow its annual TEU from 230,000 to 500,000. This rise in volume was marked with the recent arrival of a 13,200 TEU Hamburg Express-class vessel, the Leverkusen Express, at the Istanbul Kumport terminal.

“The arrival of the Leverkusen Express is an important milestone for Area Turkey. The new THE Alliance service MD3 service provides us with many opportunities, since it connects Piraeus, Istanbul, Aliaga and Mersin directly with Asia. Istanbul is the main port in the Turkish rotation, especially discharging Far East Westbound cargo,” Area Manager Danny Smolders said.