"It's great news for the port. We have been working to attract a new import ship call to Tauranga to better balance our MetroPort rail shuttle service to and from Auckland," he said.
Maersk Line New Zealand trade and marketing manager Dave Gulik said industrial unrest at Ports of Auckland had played a part in the decision to alter the service.
"The security of supply chain is of primary importance to our customers, so anything affecting that, or likely to affect that in the future, will come into the equation when we are deciding schedules," he said.
Ports of Auckland postponed mediation with Maritime Union of New Zealand yesterday after it learned it had lost one of its largest shipping services.
The Southern Star service will bring another 50,000-70,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent containers) a year to the Sulphur Point terminal, taking the total volume to well over 600,000 and revenue to more than $200 million.
Port of Tauranga handled 590,500 containers during its last financial year, and it had total revenue of $185 million.
Mr Cairns said the new business has the potential of adding another $2.5 million net profit over the next seven months to the end of its latest financial year on June 30, 2012, and it was on course to reach a record profit of $64-$67 million. During that seven-month period, there would also be a 25 per cent increase in container movements.
He said the Southern Star service will be reviewed next June when MISC withdraws from container line shipping globally.
"The service fits nicely into the Saturday window when a lot of the trains going back to Auckland are empty. We want to keep our head down and make sure we deliver on the service," Mr Cairns said.
Mr Gulik said most of the export cargoes presently shipped out of Auckland are coming out of the Waikato-Bay of Plenty region and those exporters' transport and logistics operations tend to be port-neutral. Any change to total transit time is likely to be a matter of hours at the most.
The Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) said shifting more containers to and from Tauranga won't help the carbon footprint with unnecessary rail freight and more trucks on the road.
"We certainly hope this is not the beginning of an exodus of work from Ports of Auckland," said EMA's chief executive, Kim Campbell.
Five years ago, Maersk announced that it was using Auckland as its North Island hub for container vessel calls but over time the big shipping line has gravitated back to Tauranga.
"The industrial relations has a significant bearing on this. We've kept our nose clean, done the hard work on costs and productivity, planned a $150 million capital expenditure programme, and ensured we will be here in 20 to 50 years time," Mr Cairns said.
Earlier this year, Maersk added Tauranga as a call for its Northern Star service, while maintaining Auckland. The "Two Stars" provide New Zealand shippers with direct access to the Asian hub ports of Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia. The Northern Star service takes in Singapore and Brisbane as well.
