New shipping line

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 35

New shipping line

PA Wellington A newcomer to the transTasman shipping trade, the Tasman Express Line, Lto’, will provide more frequent sailings than any other container service on the route, according to general manager Captain Craig Harris. The Auckland-based line’s first ship, the Auckland Express, is due to pay its inaugural visit to Lyttleton on September 4, to Wellington on September 5, and to Onehunga on September 8. When the Auckland Express is joined later in the year by a sister ship, the Canterbury Express, the service frequency will be nine days from any port. The company had deliberately chosen small ultramodern ships with their own cargo-handling equipment, says Captain Harris. “With this fleet, we can guarantee shippers a flexible, regular and reliable service,” he says. “Cargohandling equipment on board means we can use conventional berths and avoid expensive hold-ups at congested container terminals.” He said the Tasman Express Line would concentrate on containerised cargo. However, each ship had two heavy duty cranes capable of a combined 70 tonne lift.

The schedule of ports of call was Lyttleton- Welling-ton-Onehunga-Sydney- Melbourne. The company had been set up in response to burgeoning trade between Australia and New Zealand in manufactured and addedvalue goods as well as primary produce. "The line adds a vital competitive element to trans-Tasman shipping which can only benefit shippers on both sides of the Tasman,” Captain Harris says. “There is definitely room for a third operator on the Tasman run.”

The Tasman Express Line had scheduled its sailings in “opposition" to existing services. Exporters of short-life products could therefore benefit from short sea voyages from all New Zealand ports. Producers and importers of temperature-controlled goods would also save on cold storage costs. Importers would not need to carry large stocks between sailings. The four equal partners in Tasman Express Line, all with wide experience in shipping, are McKay Shipping, Ltd, of Auckland, Geo H. Scales Holdings, Ltd, of Christchurch, Hetherington Wesfarmers Shipping Agency of Australia, and Refrigerated Freight Lines Ltd, a Wattie Industries, Ltd, subsidiary.