Slight Drop in Vessel Arrivals, Says Dela
etween the months of May and August, a total of 68 vessels had berthed at Suva’s King Wharf this year compared to 76 during the same period last year.
During the same period, a total of 61 vessels berthed at the Lautoka wharf compared to 72 vessels last year.
While the number of vessels decreased by eight in Suva, the Lautoka wharf was less by 11 vessels.
CONTAINER MOVEMENT
Fiji Ports Terminal Limited (FPTL) chief executive officer Hasthika Dela said these changes in container movement was a result of the COVID -19 global pandemic.
“In August 2019 six vessels berthed at the Suva’s King Wharf of which there was one wheat container vessel, one research vessel and four Naval vessels,” Mr Dela said. “Compared to August this year, two vessels berthed at Suva’s Kings Wharf of which there was a naval vessel and the other a clinker vessel,” he said.
AUGUST OFFLOAD
Mr Dela said in August 2019, 30,000 megatone of wheat were dispatched at Suva’s King Wharf while 31,900 megatone of clinker was offloaded last month. Compared to the Lautoka port there was only 5030 megatone of clinker dispatched for August 2020.
“For the month of September, 16 container vessels are expected to berth at Suva’s King Wharf compared to 19 on September 2019. In 2019, 20 container vessels berthed at Lautoka port while 16 are scheduled to berth there this month,” he said.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, FPCL has maintained its steady operations for its Suva and Lautoka Ports.Mr Dela said the company was fortunate to have a pandemic response plan which also helped the company maintain its staff.
“We always have a contingency plan and also we had a pandemic response plan so we actually expected the western area to be at a lock down for some time.
“We prepared all the resources in Suva to cater for the volumes that were initiated for the western division
“The Lautoka port was almost opened immediately although there were under lockdown for 14 days but after four days of closure we managed to re-open Lautoka port bringing trading back to the western division which also gave us the breathing room because Suva port was congested by then.”
He said Fiji being the hub of the Pacific it was important for Fiji Ports to maintain its operations.