Loading rates compared

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32700, 1 September 1971, Page 3

Loading rates compared

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) SYDNEY, Aug. 31. | Australian water. siders handled, on average, between 27 and 30 containers an hour, a spokesman for Overseas Containers (Australia) Pty, Ltd, said today. This compares with a peak rate of 15 to 20 containers an hour claimed at Wellington. However, an industry source, connected with a company which runs container ships through Sydney, said the effective rate was as low as 16 to 18 an hour. Both said, however, that when container ships were introduced to Australia’s overseas trade in 1969, watersiders handled only about 10 containers an hour, the rate achieved in initial New Zealand loadings. It took Australian wharf workers six to nine months to work up to the higher loading figures. This time elapsed before the men became thoroughly familiar with the equipment used in handling containers. Industrial problems were also experienced in the early months of the container system.

The spokesman for O.C.L. the company which owns and runs most container ships on the London-Europe service and has a half interest in the terminals in Sydney and Melbourne, said the rate of 27 to 30 containers an hour was reasonable. “But we are always looking for ways to improve this figure.” The spokesman added that some shifts on the Australian coast moved* as many as 40 containers an hour, but this was not normal. Ships on the AustraliaJapan run, carrying 800 containers, would be discharged and loaded in four or five working days in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. With a day’s steaming between Brisbane and Sydney and another between Sydney and Melbourne, the ship would arrive and clear the Australian coast in about one week. The industry source, who preferred not to be named, said that in spite of the O.C.L. claims experience showed that the effective loading rate seldom exceeded 20 containers an hour. He added that United States ports often achieved 40 an hour, and dock workers in Europe had little difficulty in handling 30 containers an hour.