A new container shipping service operating out of Wellington’s CentrePort from today will provide a major boost for central New Zealand exporters and importers as they recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19.
The ANZEX service will provide exporters/importers with direct access to the Chinese and Chinese territory ports of Hong Kong, Keelung (Taiwan), Shanghai, Ningbo and Shekou.
CentrePort General Manager Commercial Andrew Locke says the service gives exporters and importers more choice and flexibility to access the growing North East Asian market.
“This is great news for our customers in the central North Island and upper South Island. This service is supported by the ANL, COSCO, OOCL and PIL shipping lines, providing internationally proven capability and capacity.
“With the economic headwinds presented by COVID-19, this is a timely boost to help Kiwi businesses in central New Zealand lead the recovery,” Locke said.
Locke said the new service brings to four the number of shipping services CentrePort is providing and would help the business to continue to grow container volumes.
The service began with the arrival of the container vessel APL Denver which berthed at CentrePort today.
Shipping line comment
“ANL has a long history in New Zealand and we continue to innovate our products to support the market. This new direct call to/from Wellington to/from North Asia is the only one of its kind and is another example of ANL’s spirit of endeavour working hand in hand with our New Zealand based customers. We look forward to supporting our customers in leveraging this new direct call.” - Anthony Orgill, GM Asia ANZ Lines, ANL Container Line.
“PIL recognise that CentrePort has done a fantastic job in providing supply chain links from the hinterland of the central and lower North Island. PIL are pleased to be a part of growing the volumes through CentrePort by adding a second weekly service as a direct caller. PIL's North China Service (NCS) will provide importers and exporters a direct link to North Asia, offering improved transit times and now with the two services a week, greater capacity to load export volume. PIL have a long history of calling Wellington and have strong local support, we look forward to enhancing our service to the shipping community.” - David Knowles, GM PIL
“To enhance our China New Zealand service (CNS) and meet customer needs in the trade to/from North-East Asian markets, OOCL is pleased to support the call to Wellington.” - Peter Sutherland. GM OOCL NZ Ltd.
“COSCO Shipping Lines are pleased to be able to offer this direct North Asia service connection to the exporters and importers in the lower North Island region. This is in addition to our existing South East Asia Service giving customers an extensive choice of origins and destinations. COSCO Shipping Lines are extremely grateful for the support of CentrePort in this initiative.” - Mark Scott, GM COSCO Shipping Lines (New Zealand) Ltd
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