NEPTUNE Pacific Direct Line has been obliged to shuffle schedules of its AUSPAC and NZPAC services, thanks to unrelated crane failures on a vessel and in port.
Due to mechanical issues encountered on one of the cranes on AUSPAC’s NPDL Tahiti Voy 2522, combined with failures of Fiji Ports’ mobile harbour cranes in Suva, the voyage has been delayed in Fiji. In addition, some cargo was not accessible due to the crane outage and was not discharged in Lautoka and Suva.
NPDL Tahiti 2522S is currently in Suva and will load all the export cargo for Port Vila and Santo Luganville including any exports to Australia. It will depart Suva today [30 October] and proceed to Noumea with an estimated arrival of 3 November, where it will discharge all cargo using the shore cranes.
The cargo will then be transhipped onto Capitaine Wallis V0510, which will perform an ad hoc rotation of Noumea, Santo Luganville, Port Vila, Lautoka and Suva.
“We are also looking to recover the schedule for NPDL Tahiti 2524 along the Australian coast and will provide updates on berthing dates once confirmed. It will also have both cranes fully operational for that voyage,” NPDL advises.
Separately but related, ongoing berth congestion in Fiji and the out-of-service MHCs has forced changes to the NZPAC schedule to mitigate cargo and schedule disruption.
Capitaine Tupaia 0537S will now also omit Suva along with Apia on this voyage and instead only call Lautoka and then proceed to Tauranga to meet its scheduled window. Any urgent Suva exports to New Zealand booked on Capitaine Tupaia will be transferred to the Neptune Matua 0538 with remaining bookings transferred to Capitaine Tasman 0539. It will berth in Lautoka after the PFL Matai 0537.
PFL Matai 0537N will call Apia after departing Lautoka to deliver all Apia imports onboard. It will then depart the from the NZPAC Service, having been sold, reportedly to Chinese buyers.
Neptune Matua 0538 will berth in Suva tomorrow [31 October] and then proceed with its planned rotation of Suva, Lautoka, Apia, Pago Pago and Tauranga.
“We apologise for the inconvenience cause and thank you for your continued support, should you have any further questions or queries please contact your Neptune Pacific representative,” the carrier said.