The cut in shipping activity would be the result of a decision by Hamburg Sud and Maersk to merge their North American East Coast services from June.
The consolidation will see the two shipping majors jointly run a 12-vessel weekly Australasia-East Coast North America-Europe service combining Maersk's existing Oceania and US East Coast services, and Hamburg Sud's Trident Service, which links Northern Europe with Australia-New Zealand via the Panama Canal.
The new route will see the Ports of Auckland pick up the Trident service's import call at Tauranga, thereby axing some 20,000 TEUs from Tauranga's traffic, which is about 5% of its annual throughput.
The New Zealand Herald described the consolidation of routes as “Tauranga's loss” and “Ports of Auckland's gain.”
Port of Tauranga chief executive officer Mark Cairns lamented the move by the liners, but said that the decision “came as no surprise” as liners have been moving ahead with partnerships to up efficiency.
Cairns remained optimistic however, insisting that importers and exporters “would still have a wide range of choices (at Tauranga) given the wide range of container shipping lines using the port.”
The CMA CGM Group is one example, having last month announced plans to “dump its service from the Ports of Auckland and consolidate on the Port of Tauranga.”
Worries about throughput at Tauranga begun last May when Maersk decided to concentrate all its local services at rival Ports of Auckland.
Maersk had indicated its intention for the Ports of Auckland to be its regional hub, but at that time also assured Tauranga of continued services.
Industry players say that swings in throughput have in recent years become common due to a 'global trend for consolidation'.
A Ports of Auckland official explained that major liners are beginning to prefer less calls with greater volumes of cargo at hub ports while feeder ports and feeder vessels transshipped the cargo.
A Singapore-based shipping superintendent Portworld spoke to pointed out how Maersk and Evergreen had pulled out of Singapore to neighbouring Tanjung Pelepas a few years ago, saying that such moves are already “commonplace.”
“There could be a variety of reasons why liners would suddenly switch calls to another port, maybe for more effective partnerships leading to greater efficiency or coverage. Or maybe just higher cost benefits,” he added.
The consolidation will see the two shipping majors jointly run a 12-vessel weekly Australasia-East Coast North America-Europe service combining Maersk's existing Oceania and US East Coast services, and Hamburg Sud's Trident Service, which links Northern Europe with Australia-New Zealand via the Panama Canal.
The new route will see the Ports of Auckland pick up the Trident service's import call at Tauranga, thereby axing some 20,000 TEUs from Tauranga's traffic, which is about 5% of its annual throughput.
The New Zealand Herald described the consolidation of routes as “Tauranga's loss” and “Ports of Auckland's gain.”
Port of Tauranga chief executive officer Mark Cairns lamented the move by the liners, but said that the decision “came as no surprise” as liners have been moving ahead with partnerships to up efficiency.
Cairns remained optimistic however, insisting that importers and exporters “would still have a wide range of choices (at Tauranga) given the wide range of container shipping lines using the port.”
The CMA CGM Group is one example, having last month announced plans to “dump its service from the Ports of Auckland and consolidate on the Port of Tauranga.”
Worries about throughput at Tauranga begun last May when Maersk decided to concentrate all its local services at rival Ports of Auckland.
Maersk had indicated its intention for the Ports of Auckland to be its regional hub, but at that time also assured Tauranga of continued services.
Industry players say that swings in throughput have in recent years become common due to a 'global trend for consolidation'.
A Ports of Auckland official explained that major liners are beginning to prefer less calls with greater volumes of cargo at hub ports while feeder ports and feeder vessels transshipped the cargo.
A Singapore-based shipping superintendent Portworld spoke to pointed out how Maersk and Evergreen had pulled out of Singapore to neighbouring Tanjung Pelepas a few years ago, saying that such moves are already “commonplace.”
“There could be a variety of reasons why liners would suddenly switch calls to another port, maybe for more effective partnerships leading to greater efficiency or coverage. Or maybe just higher cost benefits,” he added.