Exporter Forced To Sell At Loss

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32145, 14 November 1969, Page 1

Exporter Forced To Sell At Loss

Because of the Wainui dispute at least one Christchurch manufacturer is being forced to export at a loss to retain his export markets.

The managing director of P.D.L. Industries, Ltd (Mr R. H. Stewart), said yesterday that his firm would lose Australian orders worth §lOO,OOO if he did not continue to meet delivery dates. He could do this only by delivering by air, at four times the cost.

As a result the dispute was costing him a 5 per cent loss on every consignment This was not a loss of profits; it was a net loss. Furthermore, said Mr Stewart the airlines were becoming so heavily booked that he

could not be certain of making his future deliveries on time even in this way. Many of his products were used by Australian manufacturers who had to get them on time to keep their own plants in full production, said Mr Stewart His products might be better and cheaper than those available in Australia, but if he missed one delivery he would be “out” Mr Stewart said he was deeply concerned that the Government had not taken a firm line over the shipping dispute. Coastal delays were one thing, and might even be considered one of the hazards of being in business. But delays with export freight were a matter of national importance.

“Export orders take so long to get, and are so easy to lose,” said Mr Stewart The manager of the Riccarton carpet factory of F. and T. New Zealand, Ltd (Mr J. B. Bowie) said yesterday that his firm would have to send 10 rolls of broadloom to Australia by air to connect with a ship there, to meet delivery schedules for carpet for the Singapore Hilton hotel. The general manager of Bunting and Company, Ltd

(Mr D. G. Sanders) said he had orders worth $lO,OOO waiting for shipment to Fiji, and $6OOO worth had been waiting for a month. No orders had been cancelled yet, but he was worried that all his firm’s efforts in achieving an export market might be lost Container Cargo The Christchurch manager of the Union Steam Ship Company, Ltd (Mr G. R. Cole) said that the shipping dispute had prevented about 15,000 tons of cargo being moved in and out of Lyttelton by the Hawea.

His company had many hundreds of Seafreighter containers in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Lyttelton and Dunedin, each holding about 14 tons, and virtually all were filled and waiting to be shipped. “We just haven’t got any more Seafreighters to fill,” said Mr Cole. “We built enough for an efficient service, but not for this.”

The director of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association (Mr R. T. Alston) said that some Christchurch factories now had very limited stocks of raw materials and the position could soon be desperate.