Over the coming weeks the container terminal will be visited by an interesting line-up of vessels entering the New Zealand trade. Of the eleven ships scheduled to call, only two have been seen here before.
One of those, in port last week, was the 32, 200gt, 2732teu, Liberian-flag Passat Spring. The 12th of the 8184 design built in Poland by the Stocznia Gdynia yard, it was delivered to Passat Schiffs of Hamburg on August 11, 2006.
It was the chartered by Hapag-Lloyd for its Suez loop and called here for the first time later in the year, on November 29, while on its maiden voyage. The ship then made three more calls up to November 27, 2008.
The ship is the first to call on the rejigged Maersk/Malaysia International Shipping Corporation (MISC) Tanjung Pelepas services, which now also includes Lyttelton as a port of call. These replace the weekly hub service that until last month was maintained by the 4132teu sister ships, Maersk's Dabou, Danville, Dunbar and Bunga Raya Dua Belas (ex Maersk Duncan).
The last mentioned vessel ended its local association when it berthed on July 21. Passat Spring has now taken the place of the last visitor in the MISC link.
It was also announced that the larger, withdrawn vessels would be replaced by 2900teu ships. But I notice that, with one exception, capacities of the replacements range from 2558teu to 2833teu.
The exception is the larger 35,491gt, 3364teu Maersk Izmir, due this week. Completed by the Hyundai Mipo yard at Ulsan, South Korea in March 2008, the ship is registered in Rotterdam to the ownership of Maersk BV, Singapore.
The other ships scheduled to call here on this run are Josephine Maersk, a visitor on 12 occasions from February 2007 to April 2009 and newcomers in this service, Maersk's Jamestown and Norwich, Marianne Schulte, Welle and AS Carelia.
And the return of French liner shipping to the port will see the chartered sister ships Hansa Meersburg and Hansa Salzburg calling soon on CMA CGM's new Anzex service.
Due in port for the first time yesterday was the older Rena, currently on charter to the Mediterranean Shipping Co. The vessel is a sister to the MSC-chartered Italia, which was back here the previous weekend.
Both are 37,209gt, 3029teu vessels built at Kiel, Germany, by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft for Zim Integrated Shipping Services of Haifa. Rena, delivered in April 1990, served as Zim America until early 2007, then as Andaman Sea until last November. Since then it has been owned by the Diana Shipping Co of Athens and registered in Liberia.
Its sister ship Italia, which sails under the Marshall Islands flag, has been calling here since February 2010. It had entered service in February 1991 as Zim Italia, a name that was shortened not long before it made its first appearance on the local scene.
