New Zealand – Maersk is launching a new dedicated New Zealand coastal service – “Maersk Coastal Connect”, to enable a more resilient New Zealand 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 will 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 called 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 the 12th of July 2022. The service will be operated with a New Zealand crew to support the local community and ensure continued to invest 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.
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 4 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.
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.
The additional investment of a dedicated New Zealand coastal service, in conjunction with the recent announcement to build a cold chain facility in Hamilton, will create huge value for customers in the New Zealand market.
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
About A.P. Moller – Maersk
A.P. Moller – Maersk is an integrated container logistics company working to connect and simplify customers’ supply chains. As a global leader in container logistics services, the company employs approximately 95.000 people and operates in 130 countries.
