New Zealand’s ports need to work together – and move into coastal shipping

As sup­ply chain pres­sures con­tin­ue to build, a lead­ing New Zealand trans­port union says imme­di­ate action is required.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says the caus­es have been iden­ti­fied, and now inno­v­a­tive solu­tions are required for a new era of sup­ply chain con­ges­tion and inse­cu­ri­ty.

Mr Har­ri­son says export car­go needs to be in front of the major ship­ping lines at major ports so there is no require­ment for big ships to tran­sit around region­al ports.

“A New Zealand flagged coastal ship­ping ser­vice would have the abil­i­ty to move the vol­umes need­ed around the coun­try in a time­ly man­ner.”

This would resolve one major con­ges­tion point, he says.

He says for a New Zealand coastal ship­ping oper­a­tion to be effec­tive it needs to be sup­port­ed by New Zealand ports and ensure con­sis­tent berth times and sup­ply of port ser­vices.

Mr Har­ri­son says a con­sor­tium of New Zealand ports and freight oper­a­tors could devel­op a joint ven­ture, which answers the needs of all play­ers.

“ There is a prece­dent, as port com­pa­nies around New Zealand have already devel­oped off port con­tain­er stor­age and truck­ing facil­i­ties, have worked with rail devel­op­ing fixed dai­ly ser­vices, and have cre­at­ed joint ven­tures such as tug oper­a­tions and pro­cure­ment.”

He says KiwiRail could be a pos­si­ble part­ner with their ship­ping oper­a­tion, and the Gov­ern­ment need­ed to facil­i­tate and pro­vide direc­tion for the future strat­e­gy of ports and the sup­ply chain.