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.