The arrival of a ship with capacity for nearly 10,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units is one of the most concrete payoffs from Tauranga's $350 million five-year investment program to boost capacity and productivity.
The Aotea Maersk will become the largest container ship ever to visit New Zealand when it calls at Tauranga on Oct. 4 as the port nears the end of a $350 million investment plan that has enabled its terminals to handle larger vessels.
Aotea Maersk's capacity of 9,640 twenty-foot-equivalent units will dwarf the 5,000-TEU ships that are at the upper end of the vessels currently operating on New Zealand services, according to Alphaliner.
Maersk Line will insert Tauranga on the westbound northward leg of its AC-3 Asia-West Coast South America service, a weekly service connecting Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru and Chile directly to New Zealand.
Alphaliner said the new New Zealand link would only be provided in the WCSA-NZ-Asia direction, but will complement the eastbound-only WCSA-NZ-Asia link offered since July on the AC-1 West Coast South America-Asia service.
