The shareholders of Polynesian Shipping Line (PSL) have elected to sell the South Pacific company, a subsidiary of Petroleum Products Supplies Limited of Apia, Samoa, to Australia’s Neptune Pacific Line. PSL was formed in 2005 to provide transport services to the Polynesian island of Samoa and was later expanded to carry traffic between Australia and New Zealand and Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
Its original ship was the 3,200dwt Thor Hanne, but this vessel was replaced by Matua, and then the larger Matua II prior to the chartering of the company’s last vessel, the 5,642dwt Ratstor, in 2006. Since 2011, and following mechanical problems with Ratstor, PSL has used chartered slots on other firms’ ships to maintain its services. These will now be undertaken by Neptune Pacific Line’s Capitaine Wallis (2003), Capitaine Tasman (2001), Scarlett Lucy (1993) and the grain carrier Capitaine Cook. JS
