It’s been a busy few weeks for the Swire shipping conglomerate!
Break bulk
First up, Swire Projects, a projects and heavy lift shipping services division of Swire Shipping, completed its first voyage to Western Australia carrying 88 Ore Cars (wagons) for resources company BHP.
Swire Projects used its 19,000-deadweight heavy lift multipurpose vessel, Johnnie Bryan, with lifting capacity of up to 480 mts, to carry the cargo departing from Dalian, China and arriving in Port Hedland, Australia.
The vessel arrived and completed discharge operations in Port Hedland in January 2023.
The division is looking to expand its services to the Western Australian region and to position more vessels on regular sailings to the region in the near future.
“We are thrilled to be making our first voyage to Western Australia and are committed to supporting the growth of this important region,” said Namir Khanbabi, General Manager of Swire Projects.
New fixed-day weekly service to the Pacific Islands
Swire Shipping, the Swire liner shipping division, has introduced the Pacific Weekly Express (PWX) service, a new fixed-day weekly service that connects South-East Asia, Europe, India, and the Middle East with Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.
The new service operates on a seven-day frequency to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, and Fiji, with connections in Fiji and Nouméa to the Pacific Islands of Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa, American Samoa, and Tahiti.
PWX combines and expands two existing services – superseding the existing Southeast Asia (SEA) and East Southeast Asia (ESEA) services. The new service doubles frequency to frequency to the ports of Lae, Motukea, Nouméa, Suva, and Honiara.
The introduction of the PWX service enables Swire Shipping to upgrade its Papua New Guinea (PNG) Service (serving Australia to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands) to a fixed-day fortnightly service. This complements existing fixed-day fortnightly products on the Australia-Pacific Islands (PIS) Service and North Asia Express (NAX) Service (serving North Asia to Papua New Guinea and Townsville, Australia).
Whale protection
Swire Bulk is deviating its vessels from the Southern waters of Sri Lanka with immediate effect. The area off Southern Sri Lanka is one of the busiest shipping lanes globally, and also serves as a feeding ground for many cetaceans. A “cetacean” is any air-breathing, aquatic mammal, that gives birth to live young and includes the various different whales, dolphins and porpoises. The re-routing will help reduce the number of ship-on-whale strikes, a leading cause of whale-death near Sri Lanka.
Swire Bulk’s vessels will now pass at least 15 nautical miles south of Dondra Head traffic separation scheme and avoid sailing through marked out as “no go areas”. This directive will apply to all ships transiting to the south of Sri Lanka, excluding ships calling Galle OPL and ports within marked areas. Any vessels calling Galle will reduce speed to 8 knots as a way to reduce the likelihood of ship-strikes.
Swire Bulk notes that the 15 nm deviation will reduce the risk of ship strikes to whales by 95%.
Peter Norborg, Chief Executive Officer at Swire Bulk, said, “Sustainability and safety are at the core of our business – and in this case, we need to consider and prioritise the ecosystem in which we operate and the safety of marine wildlife. Swire Bulk is already a proud participant of the Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) Programme where we work with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority to reduce underwater noise generated by vessels to support and save endangered southern resident killer whales. Rerouting our vessels in Sri Lanka is just another way that we can continue to do more for the ocean ecosystem. Although this deviation will incur a small increase in voyage distances for our ships, this is the right thing for us to do.
