Pacifica Shipping is set to increase its overall container capacity by almost 50% when it takes delivery of a feeder containership acquired by its parent late last month.
Leonhardt & Blumberg’s 1,740-teu Hansa Ludwigsburg (built 2011) will enter Pacifica service as the Moana Chief in September. It will be flagged in New Zealand and operate in the domestic liner trade between the country’s two main islands.
Pacific is a small New Zealand-based liner company that was acquired by China Navigation Co (CNCo) back in 2013. The Hansa Ludwigsburg was reported sold to CNCo in late July for $13.8m, although at the time the company declined to comment on the deal.
Pacifica operates a single ship, the 1,100-teu Spirit of Canterbury (built 2005), which the Moana Chief will replace.
Brodie Stevens, CNCo’s country manager for New Zealand, told TradeWinds that with the Moana Chief’s 600-teu increase in capacity over the ship it is replacing, Pacifica will be in a good position to meet rising domestic cargo and transshipment demand.
“We want to expand the range of valuable domestic transport solutions currently already provided by Pacifica, and this will enable us to do so. Coastal shipping in New Zealand continues to play an important part in the country’s domestic economy. It is also highly complementary with road and rail networks,” he said.
According to a recent report by Deloitte, more than 236 million tonnes of freight is moved by road, rail and sea within New Zealand annually, and volumes are forecast to more than double by 2040.
Coastal shipping is expected to play an increasingly important role in New Zealand as manufacturers’ decarbonise their supply chains and reduce greenhouse gas emissions per container.
Stevens said the Spirit of Canterbury will return to CNCo control once the Moana Chief enters service.
“It will probably be deployed elsewhere in the Swire Shipping network,” he said, referring to CNCo's main liner brand. “CNCo in Singapore will decide what will happen to it.”
Within the historic Swire organisation, CNCo acts as the parent and owner of vessels that are operated by trading brands Swire Shipping and Swire Bulk.
Swire Shipping operates a large network of container and breakbulk liner services linking Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the island nations of the South Pacific.
Although owned by CNCo, Pacifica remains a New Zealand-registered company separate from Swire Shipping due to domestic cabotage requirements.
