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Container shipping giant Maersk is abandoning Port Taranaki, New Zealand North Island's main west coast port, because of a steady decline in cargo volumes.
The announcement comes 10 years after including the port in a new service to North and Latin America, and making it the final New Zealand port of call for a service to the hub port of Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia, reported the New Zealand Press Association..
In 2001, Maersk Sealand said New Plymouth would not only handle exports from Taranaki and the lower North Island, but also potentially dairy products from Waikato, and port managers described the announcements as a "real reversal of fortunes".
Those fortunes came to an end when Maersk's New Zealand managing director Julian Bevis blamed a steady decline in cargo volumes for the port being dropped.
Bevis said the Danish shipping line had changed its transTasman schedules to switch to Lyttelton instead of New Plymouth.
In 2006 - when Maersk controlled about 40 percent of the New Zealand market - it said it wanted to drop four ports and just call at two primary ports and three secondary ones.
It shifted the focus of its port calls from Tauranga to Auckland, and two years later, Maersk cancelled 104 annual ship calls at Otago's port, where it had been the largest customer.
Cargonews Asia
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