New ship service

creates waves

Anew shipping service linking Australia with the South Pacific is lands and the US west coast has been launched.

It has been inaugurated by ACTA Shipping/PACE Line which is adding three vessels to its container fleet to handle the increased volume of trade ex pected.

PACE Line is offering a regu lar service, with sailings every 17 days from Australia calling at Lautoka, Suva, Honolulu, Vancouver and the US ports of Tacoma, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Australian ports directly served by the new service are Melbourne, Sydney and Bris bane.

Fiji, and the South Pacific in general, is a new area of interest for ACTA which has appointed Bums, Philp, the leading ship ping agency in Fiji, to handle the service to the island group.

ACTA managing director Mr Christopher Cullen stressed that the company intends to become “aggressively indepen dent” as far as Fiji is concerned and aims to provide specialised services at competitive rates.

“We are confident that one of the first beneficiaries of the devalued (Australian) dollar will be improved trade with the South Pacific region.

“Already there are signs that the stranglehold established in Fiji by Japan is weakening as

our exports become more vi able,” said Cullen.

He said ACTA’s entry into the west coast and South Paci fic market will provide much needed stability in what has in recent years become a volatile area with significant collapses of shipping companies.

“We do not make a major move like this without careful thought,” he said.

“We have a definite interest in the trade through PAD (Paci fic Australia Direct) and noted substantial changes in the pat tern of cargo movements.

“We now have the opportun ity through PACE to cater for those changing circumstances,” said Cullen. “We have done our homework and we are fully committed to the long term in the trade.”

ACTA, he said, was already widely experienced in trading with the US west coast as part of the PAD consortium for the past 17 years.

The company has opened PACE Line offices in San Fran cisco and Los Angeles and plans further representative offices in major ports.

Brendan McCahill has been transferred from PACE New York office to manage the west coast operations while Mike Lusse, who joined the company from PAD, has also been appointed to a senior position.

The new service’s Australia manager is Martin Orchard who was involved in the commence

ment of ACTA’s North America and Canada service as market ing representative. He later moved to PACE Line’s Austra

lian head office becoming trade manager for the PACE east coast North America service in 1980.

The new shipping service between Australia, Fiji and the US nearly failed to get properly underway when an existing route operator sought a court injunction restraining Acta/Pace from providing the service.

Route competitor Sofrana Unilines brought the action two months after Acta announced the new service and the delay was one reason given by the Sydney judge in refusing Sofrana’s application.

Acta had previously been involved in the Fiji trade as a partner in PAD Line.

Acta felt that this partnership which involved Sofrana was due to end in October and that Acta from then on was free to compete on that route.

A spokesman for Acta told PIM: “The two companies couldn’t agree on what the legal position was. We thought we were free agents and Sofrana felt we were still their partner and shouldn’t compete. Finally, four days before we were due to load our first cargo, Sofrana sought an injunction.”

The application was denied on the day when loading was due to begin.

The judge took the view that Sofrana had known for some time that the new service was envisaged and that the timing of the court action would severely damage the defendant.

The court was also at pains to look after the interests of third parties namely the Acta clients who had cargo waiting to be loaded.

An offer by Sofrana to hold their vessel in Sydney and road and rail the Acta cargo from Melbourne and Brisbane was considered impractical.

Sofrana also claimed that Acta was undercutting their rates. However, the court felt that, again, third parties would be disadvantaged if competition was ruled out.

In an unusual move, the judge also awarded costs to Acta.