The Pacific Island feeder service called at the ports of Wellington, Napier, Nelson, Tauranga and the Pacific but it was facing a court challenge from unions and the coastal shipping lobby.
They argued it was essentially a local shipping service that popped up to the Pacific to avoid operating under New Zealand law and that it took freight from rail.
Maersk Line said today that its Pacific Islands service will be reconfigured, although the shipping line will continue to call at all nine New Zealand ports it currently calls at.
From July the Pacific Islands will be covered by a dedicated single vessel operating a fixed-day fortnightly rotation of Auckland, Noumea, Suva, Lautoka, Auckland.
Wellington, Napier, Nelson and Tauranga will continue to receive other Maersk services.
Maersk New Zealand managing director Tony Gibson said that the changes to the Pacific Island feeder service were part of continual improvements being made to enhance the overall efficiency of the network.
"We have a constant focus on the supply chain and are always looking to where we can extract improvements while at the same time meeting customer service expectations," he said.
"Where we previously utilised our Pacific Island service to connect a number of New Zealand ports to our global network we now achieve such connectivity through a combination of our main line services, local feeder and rail."
Maersk is the largest container shipping line in the world and Fonterra ranks as one of its top 10 customers globally.
They argued it was essentially a local shipping service that popped up to the Pacific to avoid operating under New Zealand law and that it took freight from rail.
Maersk Line said today that its Pacific Islands service will be reconfigured, although the shipping line will continue to call at all nine New Zealand ports it currently calls at.
From July the Pacific Islands will be covered by a dedicated single vessel operating a fixed-day fortnightly rotation of Auckland, Noumea, Suva, Lautoka, Auckland.
Wellington, Napier, Nelson and Tauranga will continue to receive other Maersk services.
Maersk New Zealand managing director Tony Gibson said that the changes to the Pacific Island feeder service were part of continual improvements being made to enhance the overall efficiency of the network.
"We have a constant focus on the supply chain and are always looking to where we can extract improvements while at the same time meeting customer service expectations," he said.
"Where we previously utilised our Pacific Island service to connect a number of New Zealand ports to our global network we now achieve such connectivity through a combination of our main line services, local feeder and rail."
Maersk is the largest container shipping line in the world and Fonterra ranks as one of its top 10 customers globally.