More coastal cargo at S.I. ports

Press, 16 July 1979, Page 2

More coastal cargo at S.I. ports

Wellington reporter i Nelson. Timaru, and Port Cha'mers were the only South Island ports to record increases in coastal cargo ) handled in 1978-79, accord- j ing to the annual report of ■ the Ports Authority. Apart from Port Chalmers, all South Island ports recorded decreases in overseas: tonnages. Timaru, which fell bv 169,017 tonnes, and Lyttelton which fell by 137,969 tonnes, were the worst suf-1 ferers. Otago recorded an in-1

icrease of 112.299 tonnes of) .overseas tonnage, mainly as a result of its containers handled, but Lyttelton’s increase in coastal cargo was ;by far the smallest of the I four. The 1978 calendar year was the first full year for the Lyttelton terminal where! new trades were Gulf Arabia ; r id New Zealand Coastal. Inward at Lyttelton increased by 264 per! cent compared with a 227 per cent increase in outward; i traffic.

Average container ex-1 changes per ship call increased by 103 to 431 while the number of empties in re-) iation to total container ) numbers through the termi- L nal increased from 32 to 391 per cent.