The 294m Maersk Detroit, believed to be the longest vessel
to berth at Port Otago, during a visit in late 2009. Photo
by Stephen Jaquiery.
Southern exporters are being cautioned to plan ahead for
shipping space with the likelihood major shipping lines will
again not be offering unscheduled vessel visits to take
pressure off peak season loads.
With dairy, beef and lamb exports coming into their four to
six-month-long peak season, year-round annual exporters of
produce, and new exporters, should not take it for granted
space would be available, DCB International director Mark
Willis said yesterday.
"Space is beginning to tighten up already. If the season
remains good for the rural sector, that peak [exporting
season] could push out as far as June," Mr Willis said.
Often, major shipping lines, such as Hamburg Sud and Maersk,
would send one-off "peak season loader" vessels to New
Zealand, especially for the apple trade out of Nelson and
Napier, but they have not been seen at Port Chalmers for the
past two years.
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket told the Otago Daily
Times large exporters with weekly trade are unlikely to
strike problems, but smaller exporters not requiring weekly
services needed to look further ahead.
"We believe there is enough capacity for all the trade out of
Port Chalmers, provided the small to medium [sized exporters]
talk to their shippers and co-ordinate programmes," he said.
Mr Willis said because of the global recession, large
shipping lines had in general been unprofitable during the
past quarter and the likelihood was that for economies of
scale, they would not be sending empty ships to New Zealand
to take one-off peak season shipments.
Other transport sources in the South have said exporters
found some major lines had overbooked space last year and
subsequently had their exports "bumped" off booked space, and
had to await the call of the next ship.
For southern exporters, there was a boost for options to get
produce to Asian markets earlier this month, with Hong
Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line joining an existing
export route of giant French shipping line CMA CGM, from Port
Chalmers to Malaysia.
Mr Willis said annual bulk cargo exports, such as logs and
lumber, might find space harder to book, especially if the
dairy and refrigerated beef and lamb sectors continued to
post a "big season" of export volumes.
Shipping line Maersk, Port Otago's largest customer, was
contacted yesterday and said it was maintaining existing
Asian services for exporters.
In November, Maersk said that although Malaysian shipping
company MISC was quitting its involvement with Maersk in
running the Northern Star and Southern Star services in June,
which offer weekly services to Singapore and Malaysia, it
(Maersk) had no plans to change the schedule of the
nine-vessel service.
Maersk's recent switch of its Southern Star service to Asian
ports, from Ports of Auckland to Tauranga, was not expected
to impact on transit times for local exporters or importers.
Port Otago has said in recent weeks neither the wharfside
Auckland dispute, nor Maersk or Fonterra's decisions to
switch some export trade to Tauranga, would have any impact
in the South.
While some shipping lines are understood to be having trouble
with a shortage of containers, Maersk's spokesman said it was
not experiencing any shortages.
In mid-May last year, Maersk dropped its weekly direct
Southern Star transtasman service to Australia, the country's
largest trading partner. Port Otago was expected to lose
about 22,000 TEUs, (20ft equivalent container units), during
the following year.
However, the 22,000 container loss is in neither imports nor
exports, but in the "transhipment" of mainly empty
containers; where Port Otago unloaded a container from one
Maersk ship and reloaded it on to another Maersk vessel.
simon.hartley@odt.co.nz
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