These two ships were the first and second of four 19,994gt sisters completed last year for Vega Reederei Friedrich Dauber GmbH (the Vega Shipping group) of Hamburg.
Ordered from the Fujian Mawei yard at Fuzhou, Venus entered service on March 25, and Mars on May 16. The other two are Vegas Jupiter and Neptune.
It is interesting to see these Monrovia-registered (Liberian flag), bulk/lumber type vessels calling here. Neither are likely to match the record number of local calls by the only other unit of the fleet to visit this harbour.
This vessel was the 9957gt, 1118teu Vega Gotland. From August 2, 2006, to December 27, 2010, it visited Port Chalmers on 85 occasions while employed on the Maersk transtasman service.
Registered at St Johns under the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, it was also built in China. Delivered on January 25, 2006, by the Kouan Shipbuilding Industry Company, it represents a large number of this design built in the country from 2002-09.
Vega Shipping, founded at Vienna in 1922, was relocated to Hamburg in 1937. The current fleet is made up of 22 container carriers, two tankers, and nine bulkers, five of which are larger than the two seen here.
Vega Mars brings the total of Chinese-built vessels that have loaded logs here to 35, built at 12 yards. First of them to berth on December 30, 1996, was the 18,070gt Forest Venture. Delivered from the Hudong shipyard at Shanghai, seven months earlier, it is one of 10 Hudong-built log ships that have berthed here.
Container carriers built in China are not lagging far behind with the total to date being 31.
The first of those to call here were built at Shanghai. Singapore-registered Nordkap, an 8516gt, 810teu built in 1983, made a visit on December 23, 1984. The next was one of the earlier examples of a major German liner company, Hapag-Lloyd, moving offshore to the Hudong yard at Shanghai. In April, 1990, they handed over the 35,303gt, 2730teu Berlin Express. In between its nine calls here between September 18, 1990, to November 2, 1993, on the European service, the ship spent a period of charter from 1991-92, to Polish Ocean Lines as POL Jos. Renamed New York Express in 1993, the ship has been trading for Hamburg-sud since 1996 as Cap Roca.
Three other ships from this yard built in 1999-2000, were the 19,131gt, 1716teu sisters P&O Nedlloyd's Samaria, Scandia and Scotia. All were regular visitors employed in 2001-02 on the Mediterranean service.
Over the past 10 months we have seen 1740teu units built by the Guangzhou Wenchong yard calling here on the CMA CGM Anzex service. Four of them with their Hansa names were owned by Leonhardt and Blumberg of Hamburg.
This company now has 23 of this class built between 2002 and last year. A further two launched for them, but sold before completion this year, have turned up here as Wellington Strait and Winchester Strait.
The first of this class to be built entered service on May 15, 2002, as Hansa Nordburg. Two months later the 18,334gt vessel was chartered by P&O Nedlloyd and given the name P&O Nedlloyd Nelson.
Employed on the transtasman Butterfly service, the ship made 24 local calls from October 16, 2002, to October 24, 2003. Then before reverting to its build name in 2009, it operated as Cap Azul from 2004.
