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Further contraction in Tasman services
By Dale Crisp
Swire Shipping has become the latest carrier to downgrade or withdraw a dedicated trans-Tasman service, with its TRT to shortly revert to a two-ship operation on 17-day frequency.
Swire says that due to "continuing operational cost increases" the vessel Island Chief will be phased out and temporarily transferred to the company's Australia-PNG/Solomons service to restore necessary voyage intervals. It is understood Island Chief will then be moved to Asia.
While TRT is mostly breakbulk-focused the move follows Maersk Line's recent decision to abandon its dedicated, three-ship Tasman Star service – which concluded last week – and MSC's earlier restructuring of most of its Australasian product that saw the three-ship New Kiwi service dropped.
In Maersk's case trans-Tasman coverage is now via its own and subsidiary Hamburg Süd's slots on cross-trading services, including Northern Star, Southern Star, ANZL, OC1/Trident, and OVSA PSW and PNW.
Similarly, MSC is using a combination of through-services including Capricorn, the new Kiwi Express, Oceania 1 (OVSA PSW) and Oceania 2 (OC1/Trident).
The changes leave ANL's three-ship TranzTas as the only dedicated pure container service across The Ditch, although it too is supplemented by slots on several deep-sea services.
Port statistics appear to indicate no significant deterioration in Tasman volumes. But insiders point to operators of dedicated services as "captives" of local bunker prices, which are perennially higher than those prevailing in major markets overseas.
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