DCN October Edition 2019

Bay of Vancouver, Canada
Ssguy
This rather puts Australian
exporters’ position behind that
of kiwifruit shippers.
SERVICE OFFERINGS
Looking at the direct services offered, the structure of the East
Coast trade remains the same, with the Maersk Line/Hamburg
Süd OC1/Trident service operating weekly between ANZ and
ECNA while CMA CGM/Marfret’s PAD/NASP service calls ECNA
en route to/from Europe, offering weekly frequency February to
September and reverting to fortnightly during the (NZ) export low
season. Both services offer Latin/South American connections over
Central America hubs.
It’s been reasonably steady-as-she-goes for OC1/Trident,
although a fire took Olga Maersk out of the service for over a month
early this year and Maersk Innoshima suffered technical difficulties
in late March; there have also been some temporary substitutions
to cover drydocking requirements (in China) disturbing the flow.
The eleven-ship fleet – six from MSK, five from HSD, albeit
there’s now common ownership – comprises 1 x 4253 TEU, 4 x 3752
TEU, 3 x 3460 TEU and 3 x 3028 TEU. During Peruvian mango
export season OC1/Trident also calls Paita north/eastbound and
during this time Timaru calls are fortnightly.
When operating weekly, PAD/NASP uses 13 ships ranging
from 2259 TEU to 2824 TEU, contracting to seven ships when
fortnightly. Some of the challenges faced by a service covering up
to 18 ports across 10 countries, with a 98-day round voyage and
using (comparatively) uneconomic, small ships were canvassed
in DCN’s recent review of Liner Trades with Europe (September
2019, pp24-30).
Suffice to say that many watchers consider some kind of
accommodation between the providers of the two ECNA services is
inevitable – but PAD/NASP’s current format seems assured at least
until CMA CGM’s key baseload contract with NZ kiwifruit exporter
Zespri expires (after the 2020 season). Meanwhile, as of 1 October,
as part of the CMA CGM Group’s ongoing brand re-alignments ANL
will no longer participate in the ANZ-ECNA trade.
Unfortunately, Zespri’s export deadlines out of Tauranga are
crucial and so often determine that any PAD/NASP delays incurred
southbound are made up by the omission of Brisbane, Sydney or
Melbourne calls.
“This rather puts Australian exporters’ position behind that
of kiwifruit shippers, which is not ideal,” one source notes.
Nevertheless, it recognises the reality of the importance of the
Zespri business to the survival of the service.
CGM sources suggest that Australian port omissions are,
$
at least, more easily managed thanks to the group’s spread of
664
per tonne
The average grape price has lifted for the fifth year in a row,
reaching $664 per tonne, the highest level since 2008
thedcn.com.au October 2019 29