Holmpark To Leave Container Trade

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31678, 14 May 1968, Page 18

Holmpark To Leave Container Trade

(Hew Zeeland Press Attoeialion)

AUCKLAND, May 13. A weekly all*container service between Onehunga and Lyttelton will be discontinued after the freighter Holmpark makes its trip on May 24.

While container and roll-on roll-off freight services are still being pioneered on many coastal runs, high costs and rail competition are believed to have ended the Holm Line’s container trade to Lyttelton.

When the service started, just ever two years ago, the Holmpark was New Zealand's first all-container ship. Holm and Co., Ltd, used

their own specially designed containers for the run—which are easily transferable to road trucks. A company spokesman in Auckland did not wish to comment at this stage and would not disclose the future of the Holmpark. Later Date He said the company intended to resume the trade at a later date with the Holmwood, making two weekly sailings carrying both containers and ordinary cargoes. The fall in sea cargoes between Auckland and South Island ports has caused con-

cern amongst New Zealand shipowners. A spokesman for the New Zealand Shipowners’ Federation said last week that losses to road and nil tnnsport had increased within the last few months.