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COSCO SHIPPING Lines first begun connecting New Zealand to its worldwide network more than 30 years ago and in September 1991 opened its first New Zealand office in Auckland and then branch offices in Christchurch, Napier and Wellington. Total staff at that time numbered 20 personnel.
Having established operations some three years prior to this under an agency arrangement, ,COSCO container Shipping services grew rapidly from the initial 430 TEU vessels serving mainly China /Japan and Korea . The capacity of vessels deployed continued to grow over the next 20 plus year and by 2014 had reached our current volume of 4200 TEUs.
Highlights over the period include, In 1994 August 1994 COSCO introduced a direct bi-weekly service to Hong Kong using two 736 TEU LOLO Container vessels and in March 1995 the Sea Dragon became the first COSCO vessel to call at Tauranga Port, in the same month we opened a Tauranga Branch office.
A year later COSCO increased the size and number of vessels on Hong Kong service to three 1100TEU LOLO vessels and opened a Nelson branch office.
In 2002 COSCO entered into a Vessel Sharing Arrangement with P&O Lines /NYK/MOL operating 3 x 800 TEU and 3 x 1700 TEU vessels on a Weekly service to/from Japan /Korea/China. By 2006 an increase in vessel size resulted in us now operating 6 x 1700 TEU vessels.
During 2009 the Japan/Korea /China Vessel sharing arrangement was replaced by the P&O Line with Hamburg SUD and vessel size increased considerably to 6 x 2800/TEU with COSCO supplying two of these..
By early 2014 Japan/Korea/China service had increased vessel size again to 6 x 4200TEU vessels .
In August 2016 the China Shipping NZ Office was integrated into COSCO New Zealand and COSCO assumed responsibility for the 4200 TEU CSL Vessel in the newly formed China New Zealand (CNS ) service operating to CHINA /Taiwan with 7 x 4200 TEU vessels .
And In 2019 to improve service reliability on JKN service COSCO introduced additional 7th vessel of 4200 TEU .
During 2020 COSCO SHIPPING Lines introduced an extra loader service between CHINA and NZ due to extreme demand – this is currently operated on a biweekly frequency using 2 x 1700 TEU vessels.
Today COSCO Shipping Lines NZ participates in a total of four regular liner services to/from NZ being the NZ/Japan/Korea/China/Hong Kong weekly service with COSCO contributing 2 x 4200 TEU vessels, the China New Zealand Weekly Service with COSCO contributing 1 x 4200 TEU vessel, the SE ASIA NZ weekly service with COSCO operating 1 x 4200 TEU vessel and a Brisbane -Auckland Express service operating 2 x 1700 TEU COSCO only vessels. Our team in New Zealand consists of around 40 employees operating from its Auckland and Christchurch offices.
COSCO SHIPPING Lines is dedicated to continuing to meet the growing demand for both NZ Import and Export customers as an important part of NZ supply chain.