A boost for South Island trade

Lower South Island exporters and importers have a new weekly shipping option to and from Australia, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

From early February, Port Otago has welcomed MSC’s Wallaby service into Port Chalmers.

Port Otago GM customer Craig Usher says the addition of Port Chalmers to MSC’s Asia-Oceania network, the Wallaby service, represents new export and import capacity for Otago and Southland.

“This is good news for our region. It provides another service option for our customers, particularly those with products going into and coming from North Asia.”

MSC is the world’s largest shipping line.

For the past two years, it has serviced Port Chalmers via a transship service to Tauranga, utilising the Oceania 2 loop service.

Now, Wellington’s port will act as a hub for MSC, with containers transferring onto MSC’s new Eagle services to the Americas and Europe.