FARMERS LEARN OF CONTAINER PLANS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32036, 10 July 1969, Page 1

FARMERS LEARN OF CONTAINER PLANS

General cargo at Lyttelton last year was handled at the rate of 35CT tons a 10-hour day, with one crane loading one ship. With a container crane, it was expected that the cargo would be handled at the rate of 1000 tons an hour at Lyttelton. A rate of up to 1500 tons an hour could be achieved, North Canterbury farmers were told yesterday.

The Lyttelton Harbour Board’s assistant chief engineer (Mr J. E. Bushell), addressing executive members of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, said that Cashin Quay provided a container berth with sufficient depth of water and that ample land for the stacking and storing of containers was adjacent to the proposed berth. The farmers, at the invitation of the board, toured the port, inspected roll-on, roll-off facilities, and saw the sites and plans for proposed new facilities. They later questioned senior officers of the board’s staff. Several members of the board, including the chairman (Mr F. I. Sutton), accompanied the farmers. Mr Bushell said that the type of container crane the board had in mind would cost about $1 million. It would serve not only for loading and unloading container ships but

also for working bulk cargo ships. Because of the weight of the crane, up to 500 tons, special piling under the wharf at the container berth would be required. The weight of stacked containers and weight of a special mobile crane to move the containers from the stacking area to the wharf, would also require surfaces capable of taking axle weights far in excess of road limits. Mr Bushell said that in the last eight years, the tonnage handled by special means had increased until it was almost equal to the tonnage handled by conventional wharf cranes. This trend would continue and cargo handled by the present wharf cranes would continue to diminish. Many of the existing cranes would be phased out.

The average load carried by the cranes was about 15cwt, and each crane had a limit of five tons. In contrast, the container crane would handle up to 30 tons, and the crane would work much nearer to its maximum capacity. “The conventional crane handles between half and one ton a man hour; the container crane will handle about 400 tons a man hour—at a very large capital cost,” Mr Bushell said.

Replying to a farmer, Mr Bushell said it was not expected that the container berth at Lyttelton would handle frozen meat in the initial stages. But the berth would be able to handle chilled or frozen containers, and handling frozen meat in quantity would present no great problem.