A second shipping line is to reduce its Port Chalmers service.
At the end of November, Hapag-Lloyd will quit its once weekly container ship call to Port Chalmers, although the company has said "New Zealand is to be called at with an independent service in future improving our presence in New Zealand".
On Wednesday, Port Otago reported to its 100% owner, the Otago Regional Council, it had carried a record 209,000 containers this year, but that this would reduce.
In August, its biggest customer, Maersk, announced the cancellation of some services, with a 22% decline in container volumes from a forecast 225,000 to 170,000-180,000.
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket declined to give further details because of a "customer-client relationship" with Hapag-Lloyd.
Neither Port Otago chairman John Gilks nor Mr Plunket gave any indication to ORC councillors on Wednesday of the pending Hapag-Lloyd service loss.
Mr Plunket said the financial report to councillors was for the year ending June, and the "outlook" section of the summarised annual report was otherwise "adequate".
The Hapag Lloyd decision may eventually turn out to be good news when a service replacement was announced, but in the meantime it left "some uncertainty" for the port.
