Pacifica about to lose Maersk's coastal business from Timaru as once again the Danes will be scheduling the 5,950 TEU Rio-class vessels on the SOuthern Star service to call. They will make the draft limit by making a prior call at Lyttelton to off-load imports only, then return after Timaru to load exports. And because this increases voyage time a 7th vessel will be added to the string.
The extra capacity will also take the imports usually shipped in on the Maersk Triple Star service, as the shortlived "Shanghai shuttle" service from Tauranga is being abandoned with the 9,000TEU types returning to man the WB service. This is a reinstatement of the previous vessel space-share with west coast South American product, where the ships commence loading for Asia.