Timaru picked for storm log shipments

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33964, 3 October 1975, Page 1

Timaru picked for storm log shipments

(From Cedric Mentiplay)

WELLINGTON, October 2.

Japanese buyers are negotiating the charter of a vessel for the first shipment of logs from the storm-damaged forests of Canterbury, and the ship is expected in Timaru earlv next month.

Announcing this today, the Minister of Forests (Mr Moyle) said logs would begin arriving at Timaru by the middle of this month.

The logs will be delivered by rail, although some may have to be sent by road, especially at the outset while rail facilities are being organised.

It is likely that Timaru will handle most of the Canterbury’ log trade. Mr Moyle said that Timaru had been chosen as the main export port jointly by the Forest Service and the Japanese buyers. It had adequate stockpiling areas, berths available, and experience in handling logs. On the other hand, Lyttelton was preparing for the container trade, which restricted its facilities for exporting logs. The period during which these restricted facilities were available was also limited, he said. At the request of the

Forest Service, Mr L. J. Dickson, the managing director of United Stevedores, Ltd, had investigated port work at Timaru and Lyttelton. and would go to Japan with Forest Service representatives to help ensure shipping capable of taking the maximum volume of logs. “Although the Japanese log market is depressed, trading companies that have been buying logs from New Zealand have agreed to co-operate with the Forest Service in arranging shipments of logs from Canterbury,” Mr Moyle said. Two-year trade? The details of what might be a two-year trade will be negotiated when the director of marketing for the Forest Service (Mr B. H. Childs), accompanied by Mr P. J. Hom, of the department, meets Japanese company

representatives in Tokyo next week.

Logs from Canterbury might also be sold to China. Mr Moyle said the Forest Service had chartered a vessel for a trial shipment about the end of this month from Tauranga. If this were successful, subsequent shipments could be drawn from Canterbury. Lyttelton reaction The chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board (Mr J. Brand) said that the board was surprised that log shipments were to be made from Timaru, especially when a large proportion of the windblown timber was north of the Rakaia River. It was not in the national interest to bypass Lyttelton, where facilities were available now, and could be for at least the next 15 months — until they were required for container facilities. The additional cost of transport and the additional drain on fuel resources by shipping from Timaru, seemed unnecessary, said Mr Brand. Millers’ view The chairman of the Canterbury Sawmillers’ Association (Mr R. Clutha Halliday) said his association would be pleased that interests of forest growers and the sawmilling industry were being considered.

“This is one leg of the salvage operation which we all hope will work,” Mr Halliday said.