Swire Shipping is entering a new vessel sharing partnership in the South Pacific network from New Zealand to Tonga, Samoa (Apia), Cook Islands and Fiji.
The service will start in January 2020 and will depart from Auckland every 10 days, providing customers with a new direct service into the Pacific Islands.
Swire Shipping will charter and deploy one vessel on the service while Matson will operate two vessels (currently MV Imua II and MV Olomana). The ships have 8000 deadweight tonnage (dwt) capacity.
“Our aim is to offer best in class and reliable services from all key trading countries and regions importing and exporting to the Pacific Islands,” Swire Shipping general manager Jeremy Sutton says.
“We will be working closely with customers to not only offer a great shipping service, but also to explore opportunities for landside delivery in the Pacific Islands as well as offering innovative digital solutions.”
In March 2018, Swire Shipping’s parent company, the China Navigation Company (CNCo) , signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme to form the Moana Taka Partnership (MTP).
Under this scheme, CNCo vessels carry containers of recyclable waste from eligible Pacific Island ports, pro bono, to be sustainably treated and recycled in suitable ports in Asia Pacific. In 2018, the MTP shipped 16 containers of recyclable waste out of Fiji and Marshall Islands.
Last November, CNCo and the University of the South Pacific (USP) inked an MOU to conduct feasibility studies for the design costs and plan for new generation ships for the Pacific region which is committed to low carbon sea transport.
Project Cerulean aims to eventually develop a new class of small cargo freighter, which, once proven to be commercially viable to operate, can be scaled up in numbers to provide a cost-effective solution for currently marginalised communities in the Pacific Islands.
