Lyttelton links Canterbury with the world

Press, 27 February 1980, Page 19

Lyttelton links Canterbury with the world

Lyttelton is the .Souih Island’s most central .port — it caters for all types of shipping to and from ports world-wide. It has worked the largest container vessel -to visit New Zealand (Nedlloyd Houtman) three times: and even more frequently has been first-port-of-call . for overseas tankers too deep, at full draught, to enter other ports. ■ Large loads, heavy loads and unusual loads are readily handled at -the 13 berths; the 40 tonne ■ Paceco crane operates on the Container Terminal and

the craneship, Rapaki, can lift 80 tonnes (among her more unusual lifts are railway locomotives being dispatched for overhaul). Other equipment to aid cargo movemeni includes quayside cranes, mobile cranes, forklifts and front end loaders. Many of these are used to support Roll on/Roll off services, mainly interisland or trans-Tasman, and their role will be extended when the Baltic Shipping Company introduces its Ro/Ro quarter ramp vessels later this year.

Bulk cargoes include pe-iroleum products, discharged at the oil wharf direct from overseas or from the Marsden Point refinery; tallow loaded at Lyttelton for export; phosphate and other bulk cargoes from woria sources, woodchips and coal, coke and grain are automatically loaded for export by the shiploader facility. For conventional and

container shipping there are storage and stockpile facilities operated by the Harbour Board, with under-cover pre-a-ssembly accommodation making it possible to have sufficient quantities of certain cargoes (for example, baled wool) on hand -to ensure smooth and continuous loading once handling starts. ■ ■ , The Container Berth,

285 m in length, has in the terminal container slots for 2500 T.E.U.S (containers 6m in length) and 550 slots with electrical con-nec-tins for refrigerated units.

Lyttelton’s central location in the South Island, its easy access by road and rail, and its total service play an increasingly important part in Canterbury development.