Red Sea situation highlights need for New Zealand shipping

The Mari­time Uni­on says the con­flict in the Red Sea high­lights the need to build up New Zea­l­and crewed and flagged ship­ping to over­come sup­ply chain dis­rup­tions.

Yemen-based Houthi rebels have been attack­ing mer­chant ships in the Red Sea as the Gaza con­flict threatens to spill into a wider region­al con­flict in the Middle East.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says New Zea­l­and needs to build its ship­ping cap­ab­il­ity to provide a buf­fer for our trans­port links.

He says the pre­vi­ous sev­er­al years saw ser­i­ous ship­ping dis­rup­tion due to the pan­dem­ic, the Ukraine con­flict, and nat­ur­al dis­asters such as the flood­ing in New Zea­l­and regions in 2023.

Mr Har­ris­on says glob­al ship­ping lines are now chan­ging sched­ules to avoid the Suez Canal and Red Sea region, cre­at­ing ser­i­ous delays and cost hikes.

“New Zea­l­and needs to pro­tect our domest­ic sup­ply chain through boost­ing coastal ship­ping cap­ab­il­ity with New Zea­l­and flagged ships and New Zea­l­and crews.”

Mr Har­ris­on says New Zea­l­and export­ers could work togeth­er to charter ves­sels for inter­na­tion­al and region­al trade with Gov­ern­ment sup­port. 

Under the pre­vi­ous Gov­ern­ment, fund­ing for coastal ship­ping had res­ul­ted in a mod­est rise in New Zea­l­and flagged ves­sels, and it was import­ant to keep up the momentum, he says. 

Mr Har­ris­on says New Zea­l­and should be strongly press­ing for a cease­fire in the Gaza con­flict, which was the under­ly­ing polit­ic­al issue behind the Red Sea situ­ation.

The recent Red Sea attacks by the Houthis have been aimed at Israel-linked ships in an effort to stop the Israeli offens­ive in Gaza.

The Mari­time Uni­on is sup­port­ing a call from the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion to ensure the safety of sea­farers, which requires the rerout­ing of ves­sels away from the danger zone.