Concern as shipping costs skyrocket

send five or 10,000 containers.

Congestion at the ports and a rail to road system that wasn’t geared up to offset that was causing big problems.

Kidd was also aware of two companies that spent $1 million on airfreight last Christmas to get goods in on time for the silly season.

Master Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers NZ chief executive Greg Wallace said the cost of shipping was horrendous.

“A container that used to cost $1000 is now close to $5000. The issue is that there is a construction boom worldwide not only in New Zealand. And because we are a very small market and we are the furthest away, suppliers are telling me they will secure a container through a freight company. Then it’s like an auction so you could lose that container or that space because it is more effective for that freight partner to go to Perth or somewhere in Asia.”

Wallace said New Zealand did not have the import or export volumes compared to other countries.

The Port of Tauranga said in its end-of-year financial report that imports increased 4 per cent to 9.4 million tonnes and container volumes decreased 4.1 per cent to 1,200,831 20ft equivalent units (TEUS).

There were 502 container vessel visits between September 2020 and June, 106 fewer than the year before. However, average cargo exchange increased 21.7 per cent because of the reduced vessel frequency and shippers maximising available capacity.

A Port of Tauranga spokeswoman said shipping schedules were still disrupted and many vessels are arriving “off window”.

“They may have to wait at anchor for a couple of days until they can be processed. There have not been significant delays land-side since Kiwirail increased our train programme in May. There is ongoing disruption and congestion in ports around the world and shipping capacity remains constrained.”

Ports of Auckland spokesman Matt Ball said all of its were cranes were working but not all at once. “There are no ships at anchor, no delays at Ports of Auckland. We have cleared the congestion that was being experienced late last year and at the start of this year. “It is simply not true to say that there are big delays at POAL and that there are bottlenecks, even under level 4 lockdown.”