Govt to meet freight sector about delays
AUCKLAND: Major imports congestion and a flowon threat to the peak export season has prompted the Ministry of Transport to call a meeting of supply chain players — but they will be thrashing out shortterm relief measures, not a longterm fix.
The workshop was to have been held in Auckland today but has been postponed due the city going into Covid19 Alert Level 3.
The ministry’s call for an industry gathering comes as concerns grow about container port shipping congestion, import supply chain choke, an empty container logjam and how it will all hit the imminent peak export season.
Maersk, the world’s biggest container shipping line, expects New Zealand’s jam to continue until at least June.
Empty containers are piling up in overwhelmed Auckland depots, putting them out of reach of needy expor ters, and the jam means importers cannot dehire their boxes.
In a congestion situation update letter to shipping lines, ports, freight forwarders, transport operators, container yards and some importer/exporter groups, the ministry said the workshop invitation list would be limited to keep it manageable and productive
Freight sectors said invitees had been ‘‘selected’’ and could send just one representative.
The ministry said the workshop was ‘‘to bring together individuals from across the supply chain with operational expertise to explore workable, immediate, crossindustry mitigations of the congestion challenge’’.
The congestion at ports, which started at import gateway Ports of Auckland about September with steadily lengthening delays for container ships to unload, is a result of postpandemic worldwide shipping disruption.
Shipping lines initially reacted to Covid19 by cancelling or limiting services, as air freight space disappeared and consumer demand for imports escalated.
However, New Zealand’s imports disruption, which has delayed deliveries to store shelves, warehouses and manufacturers, and the empty container pile up in Auckland, has also been blamed on the failure of the Auckland Councilowned port to fully implement a 2016 container automation project.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, on behalf of the council, has asked the port board to commission an independent review of the automation project.
Industrial action at Australian ports this year is expected to cause further delays.
Transport Minister Michael Wood said he would this week meet the New Zealand Council of Cargo Owners to talk about solutions.
The ministry’s latest email to the supply chain sector cited data from global shipping consultancy Sea Intelligence that showed global container service reliability had fallen to its lowest since records began in 2011, just 44.6% of vessels arriving on time globally in December 2020.
The ministry’s own data for the last calendar quarter of 2020 showed total import and export trade was down 2.2% compared with the same period in 2019. Container trade had picked up in December, full container imports up 17.6% on December 2019, and full container exports up 3.5%.
‘‘Nonetheless, significant supply chain challenges remain. This includes empty containers being stuck in Auckland depots, which are operating at, or over, full capacity, and importers being unable to dehire their containers,’’ the ministry email to the sector said, adding the challenges were likely to affect the coming peak export season. — The New Zealand Herald