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Port of Tauranga said today shipping services would be cut by 78 visits a year after a decision by heavyweights Hamburg Sud Trident and Maersk to merge their East Coast North America services.
Chief executive Mark Cairns said the decision effective from June came as no surprise.
Investors did not approve of the decision, marking Port of Tauranga shares down 10 cents to $6.20.
Throughput at Tauranga will drop by about 20,000 containers annually.
Both Hamburg Sud and Maersk will call weekly on the newly configured service, Mr Cairns said.
He said importers and exporters would still have a wide range of choices given the wide range of container shipping lines using the port.
Last month, CMA CGM, the world's third-largest container shipping line, announced plans to dump its Nemo service from Ports of Auckland and consolidate on the Port of Tauranga.
But last May, Maersk, the world's largest container line, decided it was concentrating its local services at Ports of Auckland, which it said it was using as a regional hub. At the time it gave assurances it would still service Tauranga.
- NZPA
