MAERSK subsidiary Hamburg Sud is to follow its parent in deploying bigger ships to New Zealand's Port of Tauranga when it begins peak season service this month with 7,200-TEUers, reports the UK's Port Strategy.
Hamburg Sud's big ship service will run from March for four to five months with vessels arriving from South America and heading to Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and South Korea.
The Port of Tauranga has completed a NZ$350 million (US$250.3 million) capital expenditure programme over five years that has seen its navigation channels widened and dredged to 14.5 metres inside the harbour entrance and 15.8 metres outside.
Maersk became the first line to calling with bigger ships when the 9,600-TEU Aotea Maersk docked last October on its Triple Star service from South America to North Asia.
Port chairman David Pilkington said the calls are changing the perception of New Zealand as merely being at the "end of the north-south linkage".
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