Maritime Union calls for New Zealand shipping to resolve supply chain crisis

There needs to be inno­v­a­tive respons­es to ongo­ing ship­ping con­ges­tion.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says it is essen­tial that New Zealand devel­ops its own ship­ping capac­i­ty and builds in a lev­el of redun­dan­cy and options for exporters and importers and coastal freight.

He says a short­age of glob­al ship­ping capac­i­ty was lead­ing to severe ongo­ing con­ges­tion and delays in New Zealand’s sup­ply chain.

There is no clear pic­ture of when, or if, the sit­u­a­tion might resolve, he says.

Mr Har­ri­son says there has been a mas­sive shift in the last year in focus for New Zealand trans­port with con­ges­tion seen as a crit­i­cal issue.

“Pre­vi­ous­ly, there was an obses­sion with con­ve­nience, speed, just-in-time sup­ply chains. Now that has been com­plete­ly changed and we are look­ing at the need for secure and reli­able ser­vices.”

He says New Zealand made a mis­take by rely­ing on unac­count­able glob­al ship­ping com­pa­nies, who had rel­e­gat­ed New Zealand to the bot­tom of the list, and were now con­cen­trat­ing on more prof­itable, big­ger mar­kets.

“Even ports the size of Syd­ney are now being affect­ed, with Maer­sk announc­ing more ser­vice changes recent­ly.”

New Zealand exporters have been look­ing at char­ter­ing their own ves­sels to ensure access to over­seas mar­kets.

Mr Har­ri­son says char­ter­ing comes with its own risks, includ­ing using low qual­i­ty Flag of Con­ve­nience ship­ping that could be unsafe and uneth­i­cal.

He says a frag­ment­ed approach will fail, and New Zealand needs quick­ly upgrade its own inter­na­tion­al and domes­tic coastal ship­ping capac­i­ty in a coor­di­nat­ed and coher­ent way.

There was plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ty for ded­i­cat­ed New Zealand coastal ship­ping to ensure region­al ports were being ser­viced in a reli­able way, but there need­ed to be Gov­ern­ment and indus­try sup­port, and imme­di­ate changes to laws that dis­ad­van­taged local ship­ping oper­a­tors.

Mr Har­ri­son says there is also poten­tial for a region­al “ocean­ic bub­ble” where New Zealand flagged ves­sels or a nation­al­ly-owned ship­ping oper­a­tor could pro­vide access to Aus­tralia and the Pacif­ic Islands.

“This would give our Pacif­ic neigh­bours and our exporters con­fi­dence that ves­sels trad­ing these routes are clear of COVID and their pri­or­i­ty was New Zealand.”

He says it is essen­tial that New Zealand has resilience and flex­i­bil­i­ty for its ship­ping require­ments.