Swire Shipping Teams Up with Matson on South Pacific Service

Singapore-based shipping company Swire Shipping has unveiled plans to enter a new vessel sharing partnership with Hawaii’s shipping firm Matson from New Zealand to Tonga, Samoa (Apia), Cook Islands and Fiji.

Scheduled to commence in January 2020, the new service will depart every 10 days from Auckland.

As informed, Swire Shipping will charter and deploy one vessel on the service and Matson will operate two vessels — currently MV Imua II and MV Olomana. The vessels have a deadweight tonnage of 8,000 tons.

“Today’s (December 17) launch will enable us to offer expanded global coverage into the Pacific Islands, as well as specifically providing New Zealand customers with a new direct service alternative. Our aim is to offer … reliable services from all key trading countries and regions importing and exporting to the Pacific Islands,” Jeremy Sutton, General Manager, Swire Shipping, commented.

The group’s commitment to the Pacific

In March 2018, Swire Shipping’s parent company, The China Navigation Company (CNCo), signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme to form the Moana Taka Partnership (MTP). Under this partnership, CNCo vessels carry containers of recyclable waste from eligible Pacific island ports, pro bono, to be sustainably treated and recycled in suitable ports in Asia Pacific. In 2018, the MTP shipped 16 containers of recyclable waste out of Fiji and Marshall Islands.

Last November, CNCo and the University of the South Pacific (USP) inked an MOU to conduct feasibility studies for the design costs and plan for new generation ships for the Pacific region which is committed to low carbon sea transport. Project Cerulean aims to eventually develop a new class of small cargo freighter, which, once proven to be commercially viable to operate, can be scaled up in numbers to provide a cost-effective solution for currently marginalized communities in the Pacific Island Communities and Territories (PICT).

As the liner shipping division of CNCo, Swire Shipping provides several liner shipping services in the Asia Pacific markets and specializes in providing specialist customer solutions for project, heavy lift, refrigerated, breakbulk and mini bulk cargoes.