6K Containers For Suva This Month

he offloading of close to 500 containers at the Suva wharf is a fraction of the total number of 6000 containers bound for Suva this month.

Container ship Capitaine Tasman is offloading 484 containers at Fiji’s King Wharf in Suva now.

The 13 container ships that have offloaded containers at the Suva wharf so far this month have each stacked an average 350 containers during their call into port.

This could calculate to more than 4450 containers to have arrived in Suva so far bringing in general cargo and other items to Suva

TSchedule vessels.

Another four container vessels scheduled to arrive into the capital city before August ends on Monday will add another 1400 containers expected to be offloaded.

This could add to close 6000 containers offloaded in Suva this month.

Capitaine Tasman was scheduled to arrive on August 21 however, it arrived yesterday morning.

Neptune Pacific Line (NPL) boarding officer Viliame Masau while confirming the number of containers offloaded in Suva would not disclose the number to be offloaded at Lautoka tomorrow.

“These are classified as general cargo; the number of containers to be offloaded at Lautoka is another number,” Mr Masau said. “There are 484 containers for Suva this

Fiji Ports Terminal Limited (FPTL) chief executive officer Hasthika Dela

trip,” he said.

While details surrounding the delay on the ship’s arrival are yet to be confirmed, Capitaine Tasman offloaded 340 containers yesterday.

Capitaine Tasman is scheduled to depart today at 1400 hours for Lautoka after offloading the rest of the 144 containers.

Fiji Ports Terminal Limited (FPTL) chief executive officer Hasthika Dela confirmed that Capitaine Tasman called into Fiji’s ports on a regular basis.“Fiji Ports Terminal carries out checks on the number of containers coming in once clearance is given to discharge, then we discharge,” Mr Dela said. “We do not open the containers as this is the entire responsibility of Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority for inspection.

Capitaine Tasman was at Noumea before it came to Fiji. Its next port of call after Lautoka is Tauranga in New Zealand then to Auckland before it again goes to Noumea.

This is its second rotational trip to Suva this month. It was last in Suva on August 7 and had departed for Lautoka the day after.

The other three container vessels under NPL’s list include Capitaine Wallis, Kokopo Chief and Captaine Dampier.

NPL is a vessel owner and operator specialising in the South Pacific islands region for containers, bulk and break-bulk cargoes.

Container vessels

The four container vessels due to arrive into Fiji the next five days are Liloa II, Capitaine Dampier, Tropical Islander and Kota Hakim. Container ships have made it feasible to transfer towering quantities of cargo at a time and have changed global trade efficiency.