SEATRADE to upgrade its New Zealand liner service to the Meridian liner service, as from 9 January 2017

After almost two decades of successful Fast, Direct and Dedicated (FDD) services between Europe, the South Pacific Islands and New Zealand, Seatrade will upgrade its New Zealand service as from 9 January 2017. This new FDD liner service, to be named MERIDIAN service, will continue linking Europe to the South Pacific on its southbound leg and New Zealand to Europe on its northbound leg but will add Peru and USEC on the latter.

Running completely independently and free of any alliance commitments with other carriers, Seatrade puts “The Customer” at the heart of the MERIDIAN service. The service was shaped and designed in order to meet customers’ needs and offer logistics solutions to highly sensitive and delicate cargoes, without any compromise on the service quality.

The fully containerised MERIDIAN service will be performed by 8 modern container vessels including Seatrade’s 2,200 TEUs Colour Class newbuildings, with ultra-high reefer capacity intake of more than 700 plugs per vessel.

With the brand-new high performance / low CO₂ emission reefer equipment Seatrade ordered mid-2016 and the brand-new high tech vessels, the MERIDIAN service will not only continue offering first class service to Seatrade’s existing customer base but will reach out and offer space to all cargoes Seatrade could not carry earlier because of space limitations. The year-round MERIDIAN service will offer all types of equipment: 20′ and 40′ HC Reefers with or without CA, 20′, 40′ and 40′ HC Dry, Open Top boxes, Flat Racks, etc.

The service will also load all types of cargoes, including general, marine & project cargoes and cars.

The 10-day frequency MERIDIAN service will have the following rotation: Rotterdam, Dunkirk, Radicatel, Papeete, Noumea, Nelson, Napier, Tauranga, Callao, Paita, Philadelphia, Zeebrugge, Tilbury and Rotterdam. With transit times of 23 days from EU to Tahiti, 30 days EU to new Caledonia, 30 days NZL to EU, 21 days NZL to USEC, 16 days Peru to EU and 8 days from Peru to USEC, the MERIDIAN FDD service will be the fastest service on these routes.

The large, customer-friendly and easy accessible Seatrade network team – including the HQ in Antwerp – will ensure around-the-clock service to answer all customers’ questions and queries.

The MERIDIAN service has been designed to add high value to the supply chain for customers and will ensure that gains are maximized on both product shelf life and cash flow for the shippers.

For schedules and more details, please consult our website: www.seatrade.com

By Seatrade Reefer Chartering NV