Next month will be the last time a Maersk-branded vessel stops in Alaska. The Danish shipping company announced last month that it will suspend its service to the state after a final sailing in February.
The global shipping and transportation company Maersk announced on Dec. 19 it would cease operations in Dutch Harbor and Kodiak as part of its Transpacific Network routes. Maersk said in a statement the decision was due to its, “ongoing effort to strengthen our product offerings and maintain reliability in the network.”
A spokesperson for the company’s North American operations did not respond to multiple requests for comment, via email or phone.
Kodiak’s Harbormaster and Port Director Dave Johnson told KMXT via email, “We will be losing shipping capacity during peak processing season(s), I’m hopeful our local providers will have the capacity to absorb the additional cargo needs.”
That means more of the shipping burden will be shifted to the few carriers that remain in Kodiak, like Alaska Marine Lines [also known as Lynden], SPAN and Matson.
Dylan Faber, the community and government affairs manager for Matson in Alaska, said the company is looking at increasing its capacity in Kodiak to support the seafood industry.
“We’re actively doing that, we’re looking at it, we’re evaluating where those opportunities are," Faber said. "And [we're] looking to areas where we’re able to fill in and support the industry with additional capacity.”
When reached via email, Ashton Meier, the vice president of processing at Pacific Seafood, said the company is maintaining service with another carrier but the reduced number of options in Kodiak is concerning.
He said, “fewer options can increase shipping costs, limit the volume of goods that can move off the island, and create vulnerabilities for the industry. If one of the remaining carriers experiences a disruption, we could face service pauses, making it challenging to move our products efficiently.”
Meier said Pacific Seafood was using Maersk as a “key shipping partner” in Kodiak.
But Matson, another carrier, also has deliveries into Kodiak, scheduled twice a week for its ocean-going vessels to bring in and out a variety of cargo, including groceries and exports of seafood. It also has worked in partnership with Maersk to deliver the international company’s cargo to town.
Faber said a couple times a year Maersk would call Matson and have them perform "stevedoring work". This involves offloading empty Maersk containers and sometimes on-loading those containers onto Matson’s vessels.
“Once the various customers would load those Maersk containers, they would be reloaded onto a Matson core domestic service vessel that calls on Kodiak twice a week," Faber said. "And once those ships each week continue on to Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, that’s where it would connect with either Maersk’s other service, or Matson’s Asia Express service, or wherever the final destination of those containers are.”
Matson entered into a similar partnership with Maersk in Dutch Harbor around 2015 to provide exclusive stevedoring and slot charter services after Matson acquired a former shipping company located in the region, Horizon Lines. With Maersk pulling out of that port as well, Unalaska city staff say the local CMA-CGM office is potentially picking up Maersk’s cargo at the international port in Dutch Harbor.
The timing of Maersk pulling out of Kodiak and Dutch Harbor next month comes in the midst of a lucrative Pollock “A” season in the Gulf of Alaska which typically begins mid-January and runs through March.
The final Maersk vessel to make port calls in the Gulf of Alaska is the Cape Sorel, which is scheduled to depart Tacoma, Washington on Feb. 4 and arrive into Dutch Harbor about a week later with no scheduled stop in Kodiak.
