The movement of Swire Shipping Agencies vessels have picked up by two visits every month in 2017, said operations manager Shyam Reddy.

“We used to have four or five calls every month but it picked up to six to seven every month last year,” Mr Reddy said.

Swire Shipping that is owned by the China Navigation company which has a fleet of over 100 container and multipurpose vessels, bulk and cement carriers providing sustainable shipping solutions to enable global trade.

Mr Reddy who was speaking from the Swire Shipping Agencies office in Walu Bay, Suva said the increase of visits of the vessels should be welcomed by businesses in the country.

“The additional visits should be utilised because it would allow more importation of products and more cargo space for businesses,” he said.

Mr Reddy said one of their vessels the MV Siangtan called in at the port of Suva Thursday last week from Lautoka and had left for Auckland in New Zealand on Friday.

The 25,500 tonne MV Siangtan was last in Fiji on January 11, before departing and visiting Brisbane on January 17, Noumea on January 25, Singapore on March 5, Noumea on March 17 before visiting the ports of Lautoka and Suva March 21-23.

The China Navigation Company (CNCo) is the wholly-owned, deep-sea shipping arm of the Swire group.

Headquartered in Singapore, the company has branches in 15 countries operating a global network of multipurpose liner, dry bulk and bulk logistics shipping services through its three business divisions – Swire Shipping, Swire Bulk and Swire Bulk Logistics.