Ship may be withdrawn

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32458, 19 November 1970, Page 2

Ship may be withdrawn

(Neto Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Nov. 18.

The New Zealand freighter Aotearoa, now on its way back from Japan, may be withdrawn from the trade.

The chairman of directors of New Zealand Sea Transport (Mr R. A. Owens) said today in a telephone interview from Tauranga that the ship’s future was in doubt unless the Japanese began buying New Zealand mutton again. Asked to comment on an unofficial report that the Aotearoa had been offered to the British Conference Lines

on a charter basis, and had been declined, Mr Owens said his company had made inquiries “all over the place” to people who might be interested in running the ship. “We don’t want to lay the ship up if we can fit it into some trade,” he said. “The mutton run between New Zealand and Japan is now dead,” he said. “The Japanese won’t pay the price and we haven’t been able to raise cargo for the ship. We know it is not being taken by others.” Nothing on the fate of the ship had been decided, and various propositions were being looked into. Mr Owens would not comment on a suggestion that Mitsui-O.S.K. would be taking the ship back at the end of the present run and using it on a service between Japan and South America. If this were the case, however, he would like to see a New Zealand crew in it whatever part of the world it served. “But a lot now depends on whether the Japanese market will buck up,” he said. “The Japanese like our lamb and mutton but it appears they are not paying the price. The 6327-ton Aotearoa arrived at Auckland on its maiden voyage from Japan, where it was built, on September 28 last year. Although operated by the Tauranga-based New Zealand Sea Transport, Ltd, it is on long-term charter from the Japanese Mitsui-O.S.K. Shipping Line. The Aotearoa is manned by a crew of 31 and has a total refrigerated capacity of 313,074 cubic feet. Its diesel engine gives a speed of 17.2 knots. It loads around the New Zealand coast for Japan, taking mainly mutton. Officials from the Conference Lines in Wellington said that they did not know that the vessel had been offered to the group. But Mr Owens could have made an offer during a visit to London and they would not know about it at this stage. About three months ago the ship’s name appeared on the Baltic Exchange, where vessels are offered for charter, but it was subsequently withdrawn.