COASTAL SHIPPING FREIGHTS RISE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 3

COASTAL SHIPPING FREIGHTS RISE

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 29. The New Zealand Shipowners’ Federation has announced that freight rates are to be increased as from October 1 by amounts of up to 7s 6d a ton. A spokesman for the federation said rising costs, culminating in the effect of the recent 6 per cent General Wage Order on existing award payments, made additional revenue essential.

“Labour costs represent a major part of the industry’s expenditure and no margin of profit exists from which rising costs can be absorbed in toto,” he said.

The Trans-Tasman Freight Conference has announced an increase of 7s 6d a ton on general cargo between New Zealand and Australia, effective from October 1.

Mr T. J. S. Spencer, president of the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association, said later he felt sure that manufacturers would look carefully at other means of New Zealand-wide distribution of their products as a means of combating increases in shipping freight rates for New Zealand coastal and transTasman shipping. Mr Spencer said that manufacturers would be sorry to see freights again increased, if for no other reason than

that the majority of manufacturers were trying to hold prices at present levels. “Manufacturers feel it is a pity that there is hot some degree of competition in shipping where those offering best rates and the best service would get the- business,” he said. Double Effect “Manufacturers are disappointed by the announcement that coastal and trans-Tasman shipping freight rates are to be increased by 7s 6d a ton,” the vice-president of the Manufacturers’ Federation, Mr J. R. Maddren, of Christchurch, said this evening.

“The increase in coastal freight will have a- double effect, adding to the cost of materials transported by sea and also to the cost of goods being dispatched to consumer markets,” said Mr Maddren. “Higher trans - Tasman freight rates will also Be felt severely, first because New Zealand manufacturers use substantial quantities of raw materials from Australia and second because they are striving at present to build up their export trade across the Tasman. “This increase is another in the series of consequences of the recent General Wage Order. The manufacturers’ federation has pressed for the General Wage Order system to be done away with and replaced by standard wage pronouncements, which should come into operation only as awards and industrial agreements are renewed,” he said. Not Absorbed Mr D. T. Clifton-Lewis, president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, said that it was no surprise that the General Wage Order led to an increase in freight rates. The shipping companies, he said, were unable to absorb this latest impost on top of other rising costs. “No doubt the suspicion will remain in some minds that the opportunity has been taken, not only to recover increased costs, but to increase profits. These doubts could best be removed by the shipping companies placing the facts justifying the increases sought before a body representative of users.”