New Zealand shipping answer to supply chain crisis

As con­cerns about New Zealand’s sup­ply chain grow, the Mari­time Uni­on says the answers are there to alle­vi­ate ship­ping and port con­ges­tion.

Numer­ous industry sources are pre­dict­ing ongo­ing dis­rup­tion over the Christ­mas peri­od into the New Year, with no end in sight.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says there are mul­tiple prob­lems in the glob­al sup­ply chain, but New Zea­l­and has left itself exposed due to bad policies.

He says a short term profit approach had res­ul­ted in a brittle sup­ply chain that was now fail­ing.

As the ship­ping short­age worsened, glob­al oper­at­ors were focussed on big­ger inter­na­tion­al mar­kets and New Zea­l­and was miss­ing out, he says.

“The world has changed very quickly, and we need to quickly build up New Zea­l­and cap­ab­il­ity to move our goods.”

New Zea­l­and busi­nesses are now hav­ing to charter ships to get their products to mar­kets.

Mr Har­ris­on says the danger of this frag­men­ted approach is some major oper­at­ors may get ser­viced, but smal­ler region­al indus­tries may find them­selves locked out.

“We need to have a New Zea­l­and coastal ship­ping fleet for domest­ic and region­al ser­vices, and we need to look at a nation­ally co-ordin­ated sys­tem for char­ter­ing ves­sels, crewed by New Zea­l­and sea­farers.”

There are pos­it­ive signs with a com­mit­ment from the Gov­ern­ment and fund­ing to devel­op coastal ship­ping, but Mr Har­ris­on says the situ­ation requires more bold and innov­at­ive think­ing.

The Mari­time Uni­on is cam­paign­ing to get New Zea­l­and coastal ship­ping provid­ing ded­ic­ated cap­ab­il­ity on a hub and spoke mod­el between inter­na­tion­al and region­al ports.

“It is now clear that a mari­time trade based nation like New Zea­l­and needs to have secur­ity and resi­li­ence in its sup­ply chain, and that means New Zea­l­and ship­ping cap­ab­il­ity.”