Union Steam loses a valuable customer

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 11

Union Steam loses a valuable customer

PA Wellington. The Union Steam Ship Company has lost one of its major Australian freight customers. Broken Hill Proprietary, the giant Australian mining company, has told the shipping company that it intends to use its own ships on the Tasman trade. The collapse of domestic shipping in Australia and the need for Broken Hill to use its fleet on other routes is understood to be the reason for the change.

The Australian company has been using its own ships on the Tasman run for some months but Union Company roll-on ferries have continued to carry a significant amount of Broken Hill’s New Zealand exports. Broken Hill has also been unhappy with Union Company freight rates and the need for it to ship its steel products from Newcastle to Sydney and from Port Kembla to Adelaide for shipment to New Zealand.

Union Company executives are not happy with the Broken Hill decision but they believe they will win back the steel shipments as soon as the Australian domestic shopping scene picks up. They say that Broken Hill has not walked out completely on Union Company ships. Small amounts of steel exports willcontinue to be shipped by the ferries. Broken Hill is the second major Tasman freight shipper to be lost to the Union Company in recent months.

The New Zealand pulp and paper manufacturer. Tasman, has also decided to use its own ships on the Tasman trade. “Broken Hill has told us that it will coninue to ship some of its freight by our ships,” a Union Company spokesman said. Union Company ferries are unable to pick up steel shipments directly from Newcastle, Port Kembla or Whyalla because th) three steel centres have no rollon terminals, though one is being built at Newcastle.

The Union Company chairman. Sir Peter Abeles, is understood to be distressed with the Broken Hill move. Broken III! is building two new roll-on ships at Whyalla for the Union Company and Sir Peter is concerned that the company has now walked off with its steel shipments. The Union C >mpany has been working extremely hard in recent months to obtain freight for its ex- . tensive Tasman fleet. Freight from New Zea- 1 land to Austral; has been . relatively plentiful, but ; the company has not been ! happy with the amount of I freight available from ' Australia. New Zealand importers could suffer by Broken : Hill’s decision to use its i own ships. Broken Hill ships call at ..ckland, . Wellington, Lyttelton and Napier. Steel bound for Dunedin, of which the Union Company says there is a considerable amount, J would be unloaded at Lyt- { telton and then railed to I Dunedin when waggons i were available.