Maersk and Kotahi, New Zealand’s largest container manager, have signed a second long-term freight agreement to December 2034.
“An ongoing freight partnership, with Maersk, will provide New Zealand’s international trade with resilience and agility to navigate these issues into the future,” said David Ross, Chief Executive of Kotahi.
Ross continued, “The magnitude of this agreement is big, even by global standards, with an estimated NZ$160 billion (US$97.6 billion) value of primary export products given greater certainty and capability around delivery to market. The long-term agreement provides our shareholders, and exporters on our platform, with a backbone shipping network for reliable services to key export locations.”
A decade ago, the two companies embarked on a ground-breaking collaboration with the purpose of providing greater reliability to New Zealand ocean logistics, focusing on New Zealand exporters’ needs.
Ten years later the results are in, together the partnership has shipped 1.8 million TEUs or 23 million tonnes of New Zealand cargo to market, the majority being primary industry exports including dairy, meat, seafood, horticulture and forestry, through some challenging conditions.
“Despite significant pressure on global supply chains over the past few years, Fonterra and many other New Zealand companies, have been able to keep products moving. We’re looking forward to seeing what this next decade of partnership between Kotahi and Maersk brings,” noted Anna Palairet, Chief Operating Officer at Fonterra, New Zealand’s largest exporter of dairy products.
Together with Maersk’s carrier network, Kotahi managed Fonterra’s record export shipments without the need to use more expensive, non-containerised freight options. The collaborative partnership was also able to help many export customers get their products into markets when they had no other options.
Having recently inaugurated a state-of-the-art cold-store facility in Ruakura, New Zealand, Maersk aims to further support by investing in local infrastructure and fostering collaboration with customers in the country.
