Doug Wright

More chartered vessels calling here for the first time over the next week or so are the container ships Algarrobo and Welle, on the Tanjung Pelepas service, Christa Rickmers on the CMA CGM Port Kelang operation, plus the largest vessel to loads logs at Dunedin, Falcon Trader II.

Over the past few weeks there has been an influx of container ships calling here for the first time, namely Buxlink, Hansa Meersburg, Maersks Izmir and Norwich, Marianne Schulte, Rena and Sydney.

Commencing on Saturday and continuing until later this week, an interesting run of bulk/lumber carriers will have visited both the fertiliser and Beach St berths. Several of these vessels have been here before under different names.

Three chartered container ships calling here for the first time this week are Buxlink for Mediterranean Shipping, Maersk Norwich (Maersk) and Hansa Meersburg.

Over the coming weeks the container terminal will be visited by an interesting line-up of vessels entering the New Zealand trade. Of the eleven ships scheduled to call, only two have been seen here before.

Icebreakers are a type of vessel that we do not see here often. The last to call was the South Korean Araon, built in 2009. It had been at Lyttelton during the February 22 earthquake, and came to Dunedin from there three days later.

In regard to 12 ships named after Sydney that I referred to last week, there were also a further two that carried the name Union Sydney. Both were chartered roll on/roll off vessels employed in the transtasman trade and seen here over the period 1974-86.

Sydney has been a popular source for naming all kinds of vessels. I recall 12 visitors to this harbour in the last 65 years, having multiple names linking them to the port city. But by way of a change, a container ship on charter to Mediterranean Shipping, and named Sydney, is scheduled to call here next Friday.

After being absent from the port for four years, it was announced last week that CMA CGM vessels would be calling here again. A new Anzex service that will eventually be weekly and employ seven vessels operating from the hub port of Port Kelang will begin with the sailing of Anglia.

The arrival of the Chinese-built, German-owned Palembang at Dunedin this week, is bound to attract attention. This vessel, which comes direct from Xingang with wind turbine components, is also the first of its design to call here.