Varied transport needs

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32838, 11 February 1972, Page 13

Varied transport needs

More than half New Zealand’s dairy exports, by volume, go to markets other than the United Kingdom. The proportion is growing and the trend is bringing changes in transport needs, states the annual report of the New Zealand Dairy Board for the 1970-71 season.

Commenting on the industry’s changing transport requirements the chairman of the board, Mr F. L. Onion, says that while proposals were coming forward for much of the board’s United Kingdom trade to be carried in con-, tainers, the growing diversity of the industry’s other trade and its growing internal mobility have been asserting a need for varied and flexible shipping and handling services. “It would be wrong at this stage for plans to be made on the assumption that any one particular set of cargo handling methods will prevail. Indeed, it might be expected that methods as well as carriers might be obliged to compete for business,” Mr Onion writes.

New Zealand ports experienced their worst congestion in years during the 1970-71 season, and turnround times suffered accordingly, the report says. Reviewing the transport year to May 31, 1971, the ooard says there appeared

to be no one cause of the congestion, but with the shorter hours adopted at all ports during the year, and the shortage of labour, a snowballing effect was apparent. With annual shipments to export markets of between 500,000 and 600,000 tons, the Dairy Board is probably the largest single shipper in New Zealand. About half of the board’s shipments, including the bulk of the refrigerated cargo, go to the United Kingdom, leaving between 250,000 tons and 300,000 tons for shipment to other markets. The board uses the services of 25 shipping companies, dispatching cargoes from 12 New Zealand ports to nearly 90 ports overseas.