By Dale Crisp
Another mainline container service is to return to the port of Wellington following the completion of container terminal repairs to damaged caused by last November's Kaikoura earthquake.
The KIX/NZS service, which operates weekly from South East Asia to NZ via Queensland and return, will resume Wellington calls with the scheduled visit of Kota APL on 29 September.
The return to Wellington also enables participating carriers to re-commence sirect load/discharge from/to Brisbane.
The KIX/NZS local rotation thus reverts to Brisbane, Auckland, Lyttelton, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga, Brisbane.
The KIX/NZS announcement follows similar news from Maersk re its Northern Star service and MSC re Capricorn. The only service to maintain Wellington calls during recent months has been ANL's TranzTas which uses geared container ships.