In July, NPDL announced some changes to their shipping services for New Caledonia (Noumea) and Vanuatu (Santo and Port Vila). They will now be rolling these changes out indefinitely as outlined below.
Their goal is to have improved operational efficiencies and better supply chains for New Caledonia and Vanuatu with the opportunity of improved frequency and transit times for the customers shipping from New Zealand and to the rest of the South Pacific.
Recently upgraded network
Operationally this involves connecting the recently upgraded network via the Hub operations in the Port of Suva for the New Zealand Customers shipping to Vanuatu.
NPDL's reputation for reliably transshipping 1000’s of containers per year via Suva to and from the Islands
NPDL has a reputation for reliably transshipping 1000’s of containers per year via Suva to and from the outer Islands - the process to Vanuatu will be the same. The major benefits for the customers will be more flexible and efficient lead times to ordering and delivery, driven by the improved frequency and transit times.
Frequency: Weekly services from New Zealand (an improvement on the previous 23-24 day frequency).
Transit time: Noumea: 5-days, Santo: 12-days, Port Vila: 10-days.
Full overview of service
The full overview of service changes is outlined below and currently underway:
- New Zealand to Noumea, New Caledonia: They have an existing service on the WESTPAC service from Mount Maunganui and Auckland to Noumea. Over the coming months, they will consolidate the activity into Noumea on this service.
- New Zealand to Port Vila, Vanuatu: The AUSPAC service operates fortnightly from Australia through to Fiji and Port Vila. Going forward, they will offer a Transship service on the fixed-day weekly NZPAC service from Tauranga and Auckland connecting to Port Vila over Suva.
- New Zealand to Santo, Vanuatu: They have added a new dedicated call to Santo Luganville on the INTRAPAC service (on Capitaine Wallis), which operates every three weeks from Fiji. This will be a Transship service on a fixed day weekly NZPAC service from Tauranga and Auckland connecting to Santo Luganville over Suva.
- Noumea to Wallis & Futuna and Vanuatu: All Noumea exports in these corridors will be loaded on the fortnightly AUSPAC service from Noumea, connecting at Suva to the INTRAPAC service (on Capitaine Wallis), for Wallis and Futuna and Santo Luganville.
