Holcim lashes out and threatens New Zealand Government for following maritime laws

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has con­demned glob­al cement giant Holcim’s threats to use 500 trucks a month to trans­port cement on New Zealand roads, rather than crew a ship with New Zealand sea­far­ers.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Carl Find­lay says Hol­cim man­age­ment should stop dig­ging itself into a big­ger hole.

He says Holcim’s state­ment on 10 Decem­ber 2025 that it will com­mence plans to haul approx­i­mate­ly 15,000 addi­tion­al tonnes of bulk cement in over 500 trucks on New Zealand roads every month is not a viable logis­tics solu­tion.

“Hol­cim has a straight­for­ward answer to their self-inflict­ed prob­lem, which is to utilise a New Zealand-flagged and crewed ves­sel.”

Mr Find­lay says the threats from Hol­cim appear to be an ama­teur attempt to strong-arm the New Zealand Gov­ern­ment into dis­re­gard­ing New Zealand mar­itime law.

Mr Find­lay says the Mar­itime Union reaf­firms its strong sup­port for the deci­sion made by Asso­ciate Min­is­ter of Trans­port James Mea­ger to uphold exist­ing reg­u­la­tions.

Min­is­ter Mea­ger cor­rect­ly declined an appli­ca­tion lodged by NovaAl­go­ma Cement Car­ri­ers (NACC) for an autho­ri­sa­tion under Sec­tion 198(2) of the Mar­itime Trans­port Act to use a for­eign-flagged and crewed ship to replace its local cement car­ri­er MV Buf­fa­lo.

Mr Find­lay says coastal ship­ping is the most effi­cient and low­est-emis­sion method of bulk trans­porta­tion, achiev­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er emis­sions per tonne of freight moved com­pared to road.

“Holcim’s threat to jam hun­dreds of trucks onto New Zealand roads through spite has destroyed its social licence and pub­lic cred­i­bil­i­ty. This is a com­pa­ny gen­er­at­ing mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar glob­al prof­its threat­en­ing envi­ron­men­tal harm and sup­ply chain risk on New Zealand, sim­ply because it failed to find a loop­hole in the sys­tem.”

Mr Find­lay says New Zealand indus­try stake­hold­ers who rely on sta­ble and eth­i­cal sup­ply chains, par­tic­u­lar­ly major con­struc­tion and infra­struc­ture clients, should note Holcim’s behav­iour and move swift­ly to its com­peti­tors for their cement sup­plies.

Holcim’s plan to replace the New Zealand-flagged MV Buf­fa­lo with the Pana­man­ian-flagged NACC Vega crewed by for­eign labour on infe­ri­or terms and con­di­tions was a bla­tant attempt to exploit for­eign sea­far­ers and cir­cum­vent the law through Flag of Con­ve­nience (FOC) ship­ping.

For a glob­al com­pa­ny that pro­motes itself as a sus­tain­able, pro­gres­sive busi­ness and ‘Top Employ­er 2025’, opt­ing for a Kiwi-crewed coastal ship would be a sign of its com­mit­ment to New Zealand. Instead, Hol­cim is act­ing like a play­ground bul­ly, says Mr Find­lay.

“I won­der if the local man­age­ment of Hol­cim has gone rogue, as it seems unlike­ly their cor­po­rate head­quar­ters in Switzer­land would be impressed by this type of behav­iour.”

The Mar­itime Union says Hol­cim needs to apol­o­gise to New Zealand, accept the deci­sion of the Gov­ern­ment to abide by the laws of New Zealand, and nego­ti­ate for a New Zealand crew for a coastal cement ves­sel, says Mr Find­lay.