Swire ends NZ’s domestic-flagged container ship service
Sydney (20 July)
Swire Shipping will end its Pacific Service – New Zealand’s only domestic-flagged containerised shipping service – on 26 July, after more than two decades, because the route has no clear path to commercial sustainability.
The New Zealand-flagged Moana Chief is set to travel from Auckland to Lyttleton over 23-26 July on its final Pacific Service voyage, Swire Shipping New Zealand Country Manager Jan Hintz told Lithos on 17 July.
But Swire will continue to run domestic freight services and international shipping services to Asia and the Pacific Islands, according to Hintz.
“[The decision to end Pacific Service] has not been taken lightly. Despite [extensively exploring] options that would enable the service to continue, we have been unable to identify a sustainable pathway for Pacifica’s ongoing operation,” Hintz said.
Swire’s Pacifica Service carries 18% of New Zealand’s annual coastal cargoes, according to a June 2023 analysis from the Ministry of Transport (MoT). It is the only New Zealand coastal container shipping service to employ local mariners, according to the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUANZ).
“The withdrawal of … Moana Chief is a devastating blow, not just to the skilled Kiwi seafarers who face redundancy, but to our entire island nation,” MUANZ National Secretary Carl Findlay said.
MUANZ has called for coastal shipping support and urged KiwiRail – a state-owned enterprise – to use domestic shipping services. “[New Zealand needs] a real plan to back our domestic fleet, protect local jobs, and build maritime resilience before the next major disaster or global shock cuts us off completely,” Findlay said.
“KiwiRail … are bypassing local crews and local shipping in favour of foreign operators who pay a fraction of local wages. [It] should be leading the charge to use New Zealand-flagged and crewed ships, not helping to dismantle them,” Findlay added.
Swire faces higher costs than foreign-flagged shipping operators because of Moana Chief’s small size, tax differences, administration costs, and labour costs, the MoT found in 2023.
Foreign-flagged container ships in New Zealand have an average capacity of 4000TEU – more than twice Moana Chief’s 1700TEU capacity – supporting relatively low per-TEU fuel costs, according to the MoT.
They also generally move domestic cargoes along longer, more lucrative international routes to support local operations. Foreign-flagged container ships earned NZ$0.64/tonne of cargo in the 2020-2021 financial year, more than double Moana Chief’s NZ$0.31/tonne of cargo, Maritime New Zealand data indicate.
Swire has faced demand issues in recent years, in addition to cost pressures. Moana Chief operated at around 30% capacity in 2019, according to the MoT. And Swire’s demand challenges may have grown since then.
Ships moved 340,109t of domestic containerised cargo in April – June 2025, down from 391,244t and 444,386t over the same period in 2019 and 2018, respectively, MoT data show.
By Avinash Govind