Ongoing shipping crisis needs clear analysis and immediate action

The Mar­itime Union says the ongo­ing cri­sis in ship­ping and sup­ply chains requires clear analy­sis and imme­di­ate action.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says new devel­op­ments are wors­en­ing rather than improv­ing New Zealand’s inter­na­tion­al freight links.

Sig­nals from inter­na­tion­al ship­ping line Maer­sk show they expect the tur­moil in inter­na­tion­al ship­ping to con­tin­ue, he says.

Maer­sk has announced it is drop­ping con­tracts for small­er con­tain­er move­ments, and mov­ing to a spot price mod­el, result­ing in fur­ther impacts on importers and exporters.

Mr Har­ri­son says New Zealand has a sys­temic issue with a bro­ken sup­ply chain mod­el.

He says poli­cies over sev­er­al decades had been focussed on dri­ving down costs at the expense of reli­a­bil­i­ty and secu­ri­ty.

“That short-sight­ed and short-term approach has now come around and bit the indus­try and the coun­try as a whole.”

Mr Har­ri­son says the lack of New Zealand flagged ship­ping ser­vices and a nation­al port strat­e­gy had left New Zealand exposed in the new envi­ron­ment.

He says a new report from the Gov­ern­ment on ship­ping has rec­og­nized these issues, includ­ing an expan­sion of New Zealand flagged coastal ship­ping ser­vices to offer reli­able sched­ules to region­al ports.

A nation­al ports strat­e­gy was also required, as New Zealand had many small ports that were not work­ing togeth­er, he says.

Mr Har­ri­son says a New Zealand oper­at­ed ship­ping line that could engage in region­al trans-Tas­man, Pacif­ic Island and Asia-Pacif­ic routes would pro­vide much need­ed sta­bil­i­ty.

New Zealand had a unique pro­file as a small and remote mar­itime trad­ing nation, and need­ed to take con­trol of its future, he says.